How To Choose A Color From The Rainbow

You have chosen your designer, are ready to go for designing your new brand identity and then your designer asks, “What colors do you like?” 

This question can stop many people in their tracks and make them think.  You want your company colors to relates to your clients, draw new clients to you, but you also want your brand colors to reflect who you are and a bit of your personality.  Many persons also start questioning themselves – I like blue but what color of blue … ocean, electric, navy, or cornflower (that until you re-looked at your 64 box of Crayolas you thought was yellow)?

Luckily for you, there is a great tool created by Adobe that we often tell our clients about when they are stuck.  This tool is called Kuler and can be found at http://kuler.adobe.com/.  It is an online color tool that has listed values for CMYK (for print), RGB and HEX values (for on-screen) and best yet can be downloaded by you or your designer.  This fantastic tool can help you narrow down your selection.  When you need particular Pantone colors (for print), Kuler is a good place to start so your designer can then select the closest Pantone color to what you like.  Kuler is a free service that allows you to browse popular color schemes, combine different colors of your own, and save color schemes that you like.  When you find a color scheme you like, write that down and save the name for your designer.

Now that you have a tool to find “just that right color” and its complementary colors how do you go about selecting the color that has meaning for you and your brand? 

Here are some simple steps to help with the process…

1. DEFINE the mood and goal of your project
2. CHOOSE the color you feel best expresses this mood
3. PLAY with the possibilities presented in Kuler (or on a colorwheel or color book), look for websites you like, note other companies colors, fabrics, paint chips, inks, papers and so on.
4. REFINE these color options down to the best possible color scheme

Remember, your designer is there to help you with this process. 

They can assist you with different color strategies of colors and color schemes that draw in your target market and draw out your personality in your company branding.

Choose a brand color scheme that attracts your target market and shows your company personality.

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