Using colour strategically in your brand identity

Colour is the first thing people pick up about your brand, even before they have read a single word. Research shows that audiences form a first impression of a brand within 90 milliseconds, and that impression is largely based on colour. Yet many organisations choose their colours based on what the director likes or what happened to be in a supplier's logo. That is a shame, because colour is a strategic instrument with which you steer direction, emotion and recognisability.

Think of the way a deep dark green immediately evokes an association with calm, sustainability and reliability, while a bright orange radiates energy, action and youthfulness. That is no coincidence: colour psychology is evolutionarily anchored. If you consciously learn to speak that language, you give your brand an advantage before anyone even reads your message.

When developing a brand identity for our clients in the event and design sector, we therefore always start with a colour analysis: which emotions do you want to evoke, which target audience do you want to appeal to, and how do you distinguish yourself from competitors operating in the same visual space? Only then comes the aesthetics.

When you develop an event concept, colour is one of the first decisions you should make, not one of the last. Colour determines the atmosphere of the entire space and influences the choices for lighting, materials, floral arrangements, furniture and even the clothing of your crew. By putting colour at the front of the process, you prevent having to merge all kinds of separate elements later that do not work together visually.

Take a brand with a warm terracotta and cream colour palette. That calls for natural materials, subdued lighting and earthy textures in the decor. If the same colour is used on the website and in social media, the visitor recognises the brand without you having to put your logo large in the picture every time. Colour then becomes a point of recognition that extends your brand experience from online to offline.

Online it works exactly the same. A website that consistently works with a coordinated colour palette feels calmer and more professional. Visitors get lost less quickly and intuitively know where to click. By consciously using colour contrasts for buttons, links and section headings, you improve both usability and brand experience at the same time. Colour is therefore not decoration, but a steering instrument for behaviour. Whoever understands that does not only design more beautifully, but also more effectively.