How to Choose the Right Brand Colours
Colour is one of the fastest ways to communicate what your brand stands for. The right palette helps customers recognise you, improves legibility and supports a consistent look across web, print and social media. This guide walks you through practical steps to choose colours that match your brand personality, work for your audience and function correctly online and in print.
Why brand colour matters?
Colour influences perception and behaviour. It can signal trust, energy, professionalism or creativity. Consistent colour use boosts recognition. At the same time, poor colour choices can make your content hard to read, look amateurish or create printing problems. Choosing colours thoughtfully saves time and money later when creating marketing materials, websites and packaging.
Step 1 - define your brand personality and audience
Before picking colours, be clear about your brand personality. Ask these simple questions:
- What three words describe the brand? For example: professional, friendly, modern.
- Who is your primary audience? Age, industry, buying behaviour.
- What do you want customers to feel when they see your brand?
Match colour moods to personality. For example:
- Trustworthy, professional – deep blue, navy, neutral greys.
- Energetic, youthful – bright orange, teal, vivid pink.
- Natural, organic – greens, warm neutrals, muted earth tones.
Write a short one-line brief: “We are a professional services brand that wants to feel approachable and trustworthy for small businesses in South Africa.” Use this brief to guide palette choices.
Step 2 - choose a primary colour and its role
Start with one primary colour that will be most associated with your brand.
Guidelines:
- Pick a single dominant colour. This will appear in the logo, primary CTAs and hero areas.
- Use your primary colour for action elements but test it against white and dark backgrounds for contrast.
- Don’t choose a primary colour purely because it’s trendy. Aim for longevity.
Practical test: place your primary colour on a mockup hero, a CTA button and a social tile to see how it looks in realistic use.
Step 3 - choose supporting colours: secondary and accent:
Use these simple templates when planning.
- Primary colour – the main brand colour.
- Secondary colours – 1 or 2 colours used for panels, section backgrounds and supporting graphics.
- Accent colour – a contrasting colour for highlights, buttons or success ticks.
- Keep the palette small. Four colours including neutrals is often enough.
- Make sure secondary colours do not compete with primary calls to action.
- Use the accent sparingly to draw attention.
- Primary: Purple #5B2E8A
- Secondary 1: Mid purple #7A4DD6
- Secondary 2: Deep navy #0B2545
- Accent: Accent blue #2B9CD3
- Neutrals: Light neutral #F6F8FA, Muted grey #727272
Step 4 - test for accessibility and contrast
Good contrast is non-negotiable. Low contrast reduces readability and excludes users with vision impairment.
Practical checks:
- Use a contrast checker to verify text on background meets at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
- Test link and button text contrast. A bright accent that fails contrast is not useful.
- Check colour combinations for forms, error messages and badges.
Tools to test your colour combinations: WebAIM Contrast Checker, Colour Contrast Analyser, the browser dev tools accessibility audit.
Step 5 - consider print and digital differences
Colours on screen do not always match print results. Plan for both.
- Screen colour uses RGB. Print uses CMYK. Convert and proof colours in CMYK for print files.
- Test swatches with your printer or supplier to confirm the closest match.
- For brand-critical colours, request a Pantone match if you require exact printed colour reproduction.
- Remember that gradients and neon colours often do not print as expected.
- Supply vector logo in CMYK for print.
- Provide PDF with bleed and crop marks.
- Include Pantone or CMYK values if absolute matching is required.
Step 6 - create usage rules and small brand guide
Once you have colours, document how to use them.
Your mini brand guide should include:
- HEX, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values for each colour.
- Primary and secondary usage examples.
- Wrong use examples – combinations to avoid.
- Typography pairings for titles and body text.
- Button styles and focus/hover rules for web.
This guide saves time for designers and printers and ensures consistency across materials.
Step 7 - test in real world mockups
Before finalising, test colours in realistic mockups:
- Website hero and CTA buttons
- Social tiles and Instagram grid preview
- Business card or flyer mockup (print view)
- Device mockups showing dark and light mode
Aim to view samples on multiple devices and, if possible, print a one-off proof from your printer. This step often reveals unexpected issues such as poor legibility when text overlays images or discordant accent pairing.
Step 8 - plan for flexibility and future growth
Design palettes that allow small variations:
- Create light and dark variants for each primary and secondary colour.
- Provide subtle tints for background fills.
- Keep an accessible accent for success states and error states.
A flexible system scales easier when you add products, services or sub-brands.
Practical examples for different industries
Professional tools for a professional look.
We do not guess when it comes to your brand colours. We use the same technical tools that global agencies use to ensure your website is accessible, readable, and visually striking.
If you are choosing colours for your own business, these five resources will help you move from “it looks okay” to “it is technically perfect.” High contrast is not just a design choice; it is a requirement for a site that converts visitors into customers.
1. Coolors.co: Speed
Purpose: Rapid palette generation and professional export.
The How-to: Hit your spacebar to generate random palettes or lock in your brand purple and hit space to find matching secondary colours. Export as a PDF or PNG for your brand folder.
2. Adobe Colour: Science
Purpose: Applying colour theory and checking accessibility.
The How-to: Use the “Color Wheel” to find complementary or triad matches. Use the “Accessibility Tools” tab to simulate how your palette looks to people with colour blindness.
3. WebAIM Contrast Checker: Accuracy
Purpose: The industry gold standard for legibility.
The How-to: Paste your background hex code and your text hex code. If the score is below 4.5:1, adjust your slider until you get a “Pass” for normal-sized text.
4. Contrast Grid: Efficiency
Purpose: Testing your entire brand kit in one view.
The How-to: Paste all your brand hex codes into the grid. It will automatically show you every possible combination and tell you which ones are safe to use for headers and body copy.
5. Canva & Figma: Reality
Purpose: Visualising the final product.
The How-to: Before you publish, create a simple button mockup using your chosen colours. It is easier to spot a mistake on a “mockup” than it is on a live website.
FAQs.
A concise palette is best. Typically one primary colour, one accent and one or two secondary colours plus neutrals is enough for a flexible system.
Gradients are fine for digital use. For print you should supply flat colour alternatives or Pantone equivalents to ensure consistent reproduction.
Use an online contrast checker such as WebAIM or the browser devtools accessibility audit to confirm a minimum 4.5:1 ratio for body text.
Related Posts:
Need help choosing the right colours and building a practical brand guide?
Request a tailored branding proposal and we will prepare a palette with usage rules, web and print values and example mockups for your business.