How to Choose Brand Colours That Fit Your Business (Without the Clichés)

Start with the feeling, not the colour

Before opening a colour picker, write down three words for how people should feel when they see the brand. For Divaz, a beauty brand for press-on nails, the words were soft, glossy and accessible. Those words quickly pointed to blush, rose and a deep berry for contrast.

If you start from a colour you like, you end up defending a personal preference. If you start from a feeling, you can test every option against it.

Look at the market, then choose your gap

Collect ten competitors and see which colours repeat. If every pharmacy uses the same green and every dental clinic uses the same blue, you have two choices: fit in and look trustworthy, or stand out in a way that still feels credible.

For Art Innova Dentalmed I kept a calm turquoise, which still signals cleanliness, but used soft waves and generous white space so it feels friendlier than the typical clinical blue.

Build a small palette that can actually be used

A palette of eight colours looks great in a presentation and falls apart in real life. Most brands work best with this structure:

• One dominant colour that people will associate with you.
• One supporting colour that adds contrast or warmth.
• One accent that you use sparingly for buttons, prices and highlights.
• One or two neutrals for backgrounds and text, because pure black and pure white rarely look refined.

Use the dominant colour on more than half of what you publish. That repetition is what builds recognition.

Test it in real conditions

A colour that looks good on a monitor can behave differently elsewhere. Before you commit, check the palette in these situations:

• On a phone screen, at low brightness and outdoors.
• Printed on paper and on a box, where colours often turn duller.
• As text on a coloured background, to check contrast and readability.
• Next to real photos of your product.

Contrast matters more than people think. If your accent colour cannot be read on your background, you will hide the very thing you want people to notice, such as the price or the button.

Colour mistakes I see most often

• Choosing a colour because it is trending, then having to change it next year.
• Using a different shade of the same colour in each place.
• Putting light text on a light background because it looks elegant.
• Using too many accent colours, so nothing stands out.
• Never checking how the colour looks in dark mode or on a cheap monitor.

Most of these are fixed by the same habit: write the palette down once and use only what is written.

Write the rules down

Give every colour a name and its codes (HEX for screens, CMYK for print). Then add two simple rules: which colour is used for backgrounds, and which for highlights. THS Organic uses a different colour world for each product, amber for the immunity range, black and brown for hair and coral for skin, tied together by one logo. Rules like these keep a range coherent as it grows.

Finally, give it time. A palette becomes a brand colour through repetition, not through the first design. If you want help turning a palette into a complete identity, see my branding service.

Frequently asked questions

How many colours should a brand have?

Usually three to five: one dominant, one supporting, one accent and one or two neutrals.

Should I use black in my palette?

Often yes, as a neutral for text. For backgrounds, a very dark navy or brown can look softer and more refined than pure black.

Do I need Pantone colours?

They matter when exact colour reproduction is critical, such as packaging. For most social media and web use, HEX and CMYK values are enough.