Brand colours are the fixed set of colours your business uses consistently so people recognise you at a glance, on your website, signboard, packaging and social posts. Choosing brand colours well means more than picking a shade you like: the palette has to suit your positioning, stand apart from competitors, stay readable for everyone, and reproduce reliably on both screens and paper. This guide covers each of those steps in a practical order.
What makes a good brand colour palette?
A good palette is small, distinctive and usable. It gives you enough colours to design a website and print materials, but few enough that everything still looks like it came from the same company.
In practice, a workable palette has three layers:
- Primary colours: one or two colours that carry your identity, usually taken from the logo.
- Neutrals: a dark tone for text, a light background tone and a mid grey for borders and secondary text.
- Accent: one contrasting colour for buttons, highlights and calls to action, used sparingly.
Most brands also define a few lighter and darker tints of the primary colour for backgrounds and hover states. These are variations, not new colours, so they keep the palette coherent. If you are building an identity from scratch, our guide to brand identity essentials for startups shows where colour fits alongside logo, typography and tone.
How should you start choosing brand colours?
Start with your business, not a colour wheel. Decide how you want to be perceived, look at what competitors use, and only then shortlist colours.
Begin with positioning
Write down three or four words that describe how customers should feel about you: dependable, premium, friendly, technical, traditional, energetic. Colour associations are partly cultural and partly learned from your industry, so treat general “colour psychology” claims with caution. What matters more is whether a colour feels appropriate to your buyers. A precision engineering firm and a children’s clothing label will rarely want the same palette.
Map your competitors
Collect the logos and websites of five to ten competitors and lay them side by side. You will often see one colour dominating an industry. Standing apart can help recognition, but going too far from category norms can confuse buyers. A useful middle path is to keep a familiar base and choose a distinctive accent.
Consider where colours will be used
List every place your brand appears: website, WhatsApp profile, invoices, uniforms, vehicle graphics, shop signage, product labels, trade fair stalls. A colour that looks elegant on a phone may be hard to print on corrugated boxes or to reproduce in vinyl. Thinking about real applications early prevents expensive surprises.
Why do contrast and accessibility matter?
Contrast decides whether people can actually read your text and see your buttons. Poor contrast frustrates everyone, especially older users, people with low vision and anyone reading a phone outdoors.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) set minimum contrast ratios between text and its background: 4.5:1 for normal body text and 3:1 for large text at level AA. Interface parts such as button borders and form fields should also meet 3:1 against their surroundings. Free contrast checkers let you enter two HEX values and see the ratio instantly.
Light brand colours, such as yellow, light green or sky blue, often fail as text colours on white. That does not mean you cannot use them. Use them for backgrounds, shapes and illustrations, and pair them with dark text. Also avoid relying on colour alone to convey meaning, for example red and green status labels without words or icons. Our article on website accessibility and WCAG basics covers these principles in more detail.
How do RGB, HEX, CMYK and Pantone differ?
They are different ways of describing colour for different media. Screens mix light, printers mix ink, and Pantone provides standardised reference inks so printers can match a shade precisely.
| Colour system | Used for | How it works | Practical note |
|---|---|---|---|
| RGB | Screens, apps, video | Mixes red, green and blue light | Can show very bright, saturated colours |
| HEX | Websites and digital design tools | A six-character code for an RGB value, such as #1A4F8B | The value your web developer needs |
| CMYK | Brochures, visiting cards, flyers, packaging | Mixes cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks | Some bright screen colours cannot be matched exactly |
| Pantone (spot) | Signage, packaging, large print runs | Pre-mixed reference inks from a published guide | Most consistent across vendors; can add cost |
Why screen and print colours never match perfectly
A vivid electric blue or neon green on screen often prints duller in CMYK because ink cannot reproduce the full range of light. Paper also matters: coated stock keeps colours crisp, while uncoated stock absorbs ink and softens them. The fix is not to chase a perfect match but to define the best print value for each colour, test it, and accept small, controlled differences.
Ask for a printed proof
Before you approve a palette, print the main colours on the paper types you actually use. Check them in daylight and under the lighting of your office or shop. For packaging or signage, ask your printer for a proof before the full run. These steps matter as much as the design file, as we explain in our brochure design tips for manufacturers.
How do you test a shortlist before deciding?
Test colours in real layouts rather than as isolated swatches. A colour that looks right in a small square can feel very different across a full web page or a large signboard.
Take your two or three shortlisted palettes and apply each one to the same set of mock-ups: a website header and button, a visiting card, a social media post, a product label or letterhead, and a shop sign or vehicle panel if you use them. Then review them together with a few people who know your customers, such as your sales team or a trusted distributor.
- View on several devices: phone screens vary in brightness and colour, so check on both an older budget phone and a newer one.
- Check in greyscale: converting a design to black and white quickly shows whether there is enough contrast between elements.
- Look at small sizes: a WhatsApp profile picture or browser tab icon is tiny, and subtle colour differences disappear.
- Try dark backgrounds: many apps and phones use dark mode, so make sure the logo and key colours still work on near-black.
- Sleep on it: look again after a day or two. First impressions are useful, but a colour you will live with for years deserves a second look.
This stage also reveals practical issues early, such as a shade that clashes with the colour of your factory uniforms or a tone that looks too similar to a well-known brand in your market.
What mistakes should you avoid?
Most colour problems come from choosing too quickly or from skipping documentation. They are easy to prevent.
- Picking a favourite colour without checking how it reads on white or black backgrounds.
- Using too many colours, so every page and post looks like a different company.
- Defining only a HEX value and letting each printer guess the CMYK version.
- Copying a larger competitor so closely that customers confuse the two brands.
- Following a seasonal trend that will look dated within a couple of years.
- Choosing a bright accent and then using it for every heading, so it no longer stands out.
How do you document and roll out your colours?
Put every colour into a one-page reference that anyone can follow. This is the simplest form of a brand guideline, and it saves hours of back-and-forth with vendors.
- List each colour with a clear name, such as “Brand Navy” or “Signal Orange”.
- Give its HEX, RGB, CMYK and, if chosen, Pantone values.
- Show approved text and background combinations that pass contrast checks.
- Indicate proportions, for example mostly neutrals, primary for key areas, accent only for actions.
- Share the file with your web developer, printer, signage vendor and social media designer.
When colours are delivered with your final logo files, they arrive as part of a complete kit. Our post on the logo design process from brief to final files lists what that kit should include. Your brand colours then flow into templates, as covered in our guides to social media post design and business card design.
How we help businesses choose brand colours
At DA WebTech, our design team in Ahmedabad treats colour as a working tool rather than a mood board. We shortlist options against your positioning and competitors, test contrast for web use, and specify print values that your vendors can follow. The result is a palette you can apply across a website, stationery and social media without second-guessing. If you are planning a new identity or tidying up an existing one, see our brand identity design service or request a quote to discuss your project.
