The colors of your brand may mean more than you think. Color psychology is the science of how a particular color makes us feel, which should impact how you choose to brand your company. Everyone knows the iconic red and yellow of McDonald’s, but few know those colors can help increase appetite. There’s a reason they are called the golden arches and not the blue arches! (Since blue can actually decrease appetite)

The Basics of Color Psychology

The idea behind color psychology is that when the average person looks at a particular color, it’s associated with a behavior or feeling. Depending on your business, that behavior could be beneficial, like encouraging sales in a department store, for example. Although it is true that different people may interpret the same color in different ways, following these guidelines can serve as a starting point for branding strategy.

Using Words to Pick Your Colors

Here is a useful exercise when picking brand colors - think of two or three words that embody your brand and look to see where they fall on the color wheel. For example, if the words growth, creativity and trust describe a company, it is smart build a color palette using green, purple or blue.

Check out this graphic which organizes popular brands by color and explains what those colors mean. Do you think the brands associated with each color represent those values?

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