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Orange is the new black

How I chose my brand colours

When choosing a colour, whether it be for your business brand, your car or your bedroom wall, what does it say about you?

I chose orange on black for several reasons.  The main one being I like them.

I spent a lot of time on Pinterest, competitor websites, and Facebook pages of corporations that I admire.  The one thing I took away was that all major brands have an image and some text, and often they work independently.

For example, you would recognise McDonalds’s golden arches, Amazon’s smile, BMW’s propeller badge, and the blue logos of some of the main social media platforms – the F of Facebook, the bird of Twitter and the in of LinkedIn.

Hashtags and speech bubbles

So, I employed a designer and together we went through a range of options based on my idea of a speech bubble and a hashtag – it signifies being social online – fairly obvious, right? 

We then chose the font which had to be modern, and the background colour which had to be black. 

The orange was second-to-last – the final piece was choosing the right shade of orange.

The black represents luxury and class.  Think about your favourite ‘treat’ brands – Dom Perignon, Gucci, Rolls Royce, Omega – and then have a look at their advertisements: they always use dark colours.

The orange represents warmth.  I find blues a little cold; greens a bit boring; and reds too much of a warning.  A lighter orange was too close to yellow so I went with a darker shade – a chocolate orange.  And who doesn’t love a chocolate orange?

It is about how the audience feels

I studied psychology alongside my marketing degree, so I have a little understanding of buyer behaviour.  I know I said I chose my colours because I like them (which is obviously important) but your brand has to represent you and invoke feelings about you in the viewer, so I was well aware of how important this whole thing was.

This was backed up recently when a graphic designer / brand specialist recently put something on LinkedIn that confirmed my thoughts – orange indicates enthusiasm and optimism – and then another sent me a ‘Pinterest board’ that talks about warmth and trustworthiness. 

Now you don’t tell people things like this – you hope that they can work it out from your brand and from meeting you.

Your brand represents you

When it comes to marketing your business, brand identity is incredibly important.  If you don’t convey the right image, then your marketing will fall flat. 

If you would like to have a chat about your brand and how it can fit into your potential clients’ requirements across your marketing mediums, then please get in touch.