The Importance of Colour for Your Brand
The importance of colour is very much understood in branding and marketing, as it is the biggest factor influencing aesthetic decision. In the lead up to summer, colour is all around, and we here at May & Avaline have embraced this with our ‘Colour of the Week’ series, which you can check out on our Instagram. The way in which audiences receive and experience colour choices can be affected by the subtlest tweak of shade or tint, which is exemplified in our series. We’re here to explain how you can use this to your advantage.
Colour Theory will tell you all you need to know about colour; it illustrates the practical application of mixing and matching colours to achieve specific emotional and visual effects. The well-known colour wheel provides you with a visual map of complimentary colours (eg. red and green), analogous colours (eg. blue and green) and triadic colours (eg. red, yellow, blue) that can aid you with something as small as a font colour to something as big as a pitch deck. It might seem elementary, but referring back to something as simple as this may help you to create nuanced and cohesive colour schemes.
The closely related practice of Colour Psychology is the study of individual psychological and emotional responses to colour, and how they affect behaviour, emotion and perception. Taking this into consideration alongside Colour Theory can completely change the way you design. It is used extensively across all sectors, from marketing and interior design to healthcare, evoking desired emotions and influencing consumer behaviour.
Simply put, colours are widely associated with different emotions, despite the individual nature of colour experiences. For example, red can symbolise love or anger, yellow happiness or meekness, blue serenity or sadness. You can use this to your advantage to affect the way the consumer feels about the content you produce.
But we want to go one step further and explain how the shade or tint of a particular colour can have the same impact as the colour itself, as an electric blue creates a completely different mood compared to a deep navy. Tint is a mixture of colour with white, making it lighter, and shade is the opposite, a mixture of the original hue or colour with black to make it darker. Utilising different shades and tints can bring your colour story to life whilst still portraying the desired emotions.
An example of the impact of shade and tint can be seen in our first post of our new social media series ‘IF M&A WERE…’, where we designed a post as if we were a brunch club. To compliment the 1920s-esque opulence of the classic graphics, we decided to drag the vintage aesthetic into the 21st century using colour. Pops of electric blue, pink, yellow and orange bring a shock of modern vibrancy to the antique fonts and graphics, their juxtaposition creating an eye-catching and unique take on a ‘ladies who brunch’ inspired visionary pitch deck. Be sure to check it out to experience the full effect of colour.
We hope to have inspired you to get creative with your colours in an informed and insightful way, whilst pushing the boundaries and being innovative in your designs.
The May & Avaline Team