Logo Design Color, Business Types & Qualities – The Science Behind Colors
Color plays a big part in graphic design. The colors used in a design can set a mood or drive home a point. Color can demonstrate strength or compassion, weakness or fear. It is important to consider the message you want to portray when selcting the base colors in your own logo design. Choose wisely and half your marketing job is done. Make a poor choice and you will regret the mistake. You can always change it later but it helps to get it right first time as this will save you money in the long run.
Let’s take a look at some colors that you could consider for your business logo design and explore some of the hidden meanings. The logo color chart below is not exhaustive but covers a large cross section of industries, professions, trades and qualities. Your specific business type may not be listed but you should see one that is a close match. Where a color is listed, like red for instance, this refers to red and it’s close shades like dark red and light red or deep red etc. It does not specifically refer only to the shade of red shown below in the chart.
| BLACK: | |
|---|---|
| Qualities: | definite, credible, strength, powerful, precise, professional, direct, accuracy |
| Best for: | construction, corporate, oil, financial, fashion, manufacturing, cosmetics, mining, marketing, tradesmen |
| RED: | |
| Qualities: | hungry, exciting, urgent, dangerous, sexy, evocative, romantic, design, warm, fast |
| Best for: | food, clothing, fashion, apparel cosmetics, sports, real estate, entertainment, health care, caring, emergency services, hospitality, marketing, public relations, advertising |
| GREEN: | |
| Qualities: | natural, organic, youth, nurturing, instructional, education, adventurous, ecological, calming, nature |
| Best for: | medicine, science, government, recruitment, ecological-business, tourism, human resources |
| BLUE: | |
| Qualities: | credibility, calming, clean, focused, medical, professional, judicial, power, business like |
| Best for: | medical, scientific, utilities, government, health care, high-tech, recruitment, tradesmen, legal, information technology, dental, corporate |
| ORANGE: | |
| Qualities: | creative, dynamic, energetic, youthfulness, expressive, child-like, fruitful, innocence, enthusiasm |
| Best for: | recruitment, food and drink, entertainment, education, sports, human resources, childcare |
| YELLOW: | |
| Qualities: | energy, drive, dynamic, encouraging, design, ideas, youth, invention, bright, positive |
| Best for: | childcare, food and drink, entertainment, new technology, automotive, signs and banners, ecommerce |
| PURPLE: | |
| Qualities: | spiritual, mysterious, magical, arcane, religiousness, evocative, sensual, well being, occult, loving |
| Best for: | body, mind and soul, astrology, tarot, aromatherapy, massage, yoga, arcane, healing, spiritual, occult |
| BROWN: | |
| Qualities: | earthly, nurturing, historical, safe, financial, tradition, conservative, reliable, retrospect, steady |
| Best for: | construction, animals, mining, veterinary, finance, real estate, ecology |
| WHITE: | |
| Qualities: | clinical, clean, medical, clear, purity, spacious, simple, easy, fresh |
| Best for: | medical, science, high-tech, dental |
After deciding on your logo design colors you will need to make sure that the colors work well together. You don’t want to clash your colors in the logo because this might put people off. You need to make sure that the colors work well together because this will be more pleasing on the eye. Your logo will look more balanced and clean if the colors work for each other.
To select some complimentary colors, designers use color wheels and matching swatches. These are tools that produce scientifically proven color combinations that compliment one another. These color tools can be expensive but a free online one can be just as powerful for you as a “do it yourself” option. A very good one that we point clients to can be found here: Color Wheel. This link will launch a new window in your browser that contains an interactive color wheel. Use this color wheel in conjunction with the color chart and qualities and you will come up with a color combination that represents your business in the best light possible.
Don’t worry if you are a complete technophobe or if you just don’t feel confident using these tools. We are experts in color for logo designs and will produce your logo with the colors that best represent your business.
