Your brand colours should be more you.

Whenever a prospective client talks to me about my brand illumination service I can guarantee that they will say “ I have an idea of what my brand colours should be”. And nine times out of ten they will be generic, or in line with the latest trend. Now I don’t knock their enthusiasm but there is so much pressure out there to be like everyone else, to follow the science to use the tools that the billion dollar brands are using,  it can be quite easy to forget the most important element of your brand.

You. 

Believe it or not this applies to your brand colours too. When I first started out in the brand realm I felt that same pressure especially when I was creating my own brand ID (the one before the epicness you see now). I followed the rules. I applied science. I worked out the season my business was in and stuck to the guidance for that. I had a nice little palette but it never felt right. It didn’t feel like it was me. In all honesty I took a that'll do approach because I had followed the “rules''. But, one of the things I was the least happy with was how much I just blended in. My website looked just like any other brand/web designers site. My social feeds didn't stand out in the way I wanted. When I looked at the colours I felt meh! There was no real joy. Looking back I now know that if I felt meh about my brand then so did my target audience. 

As a brand you need to stand out from the crowd and the best way to do that is by truly honouring who you are. And whilst your brand colours aren’t the be all and end all they are a pretty important element of your whole brand ID. They are the icing on the cake. They give a little teaser of what’s inside. And if the icing is meh, then people are likely to think the cake is meh too. 

Now I know that it is easy for me to say your brand colours need to represent you, but what does that even mean? 

We see colour everywhere, and at all times it evokes emotion in us. Each time you put on your favourite lippy, when you walk into your newly decorated bedroom, when you pop your favourite hoodie on. All of this creates feeling in you. You also do this to others. When you are choosing your brand colours they need to represent your superpowers and what you want to give to your ideal audience. All of this is unique to you, so following a set of rules will not give you the results you seek. Once you know and love who you are, and honour your ideal client you can start thinking about colours that make you feel how you want your prospective clients to feel. You can choose colours from a night sky that brought you peace. You can choose colours from that epic dress that made you feel like a badass. Wherever the inspiration comes from just note how it made you feel in the moment. 

This is exactly what I did when I put my own colour pallet together. I started with me, who I am as a woman and as a brand illuminator. I then made sure that I had intimate knowledge of who I wanted to serve and how I wanted them to feel  when in my presence. This led to me knowing  I wanted darkness ( a deep dark regal purple) offset by light. I wanted  people to notice and be intrigued (this is a response I normally get from folk any way as I’m an HD manifestor). I wanted the response to be “this is epic”. So I thought about all the times I had felt this. When am I feeling my most in awe? The answer came to me when I saw an image of the sun setting over Mara, in Kenya. I felt joy, I felt at home, I was in awe! I am a british born Kenyan so seeing this over my homeland filled me with immense pride. And this is where my brand colours come from. Home! No colour psyche, no brand seasons, just home. I’m now nearly a year on from my rebrand and I still still have this wonderful response when I see my palette in my design tools and on all my client touch points. These colours represent me. 

Now for me this came pretty easy as I was already deep in my own design process and a pretty epic journey of self discovery (I feel another blog coming on). It can be easy for you too. Just tune in to who you are, who you want to serve and the feelings you want to evoke. Seek out inspiration that sparks a positive emotional response in you. If you have to think too deeply about it, it’s not for you. Channel that self knowing and self love and be guided by your intuition. If you’re listening it will never let you down. 

You should feel joy and pride when you see your brand out there amongst the crowd of brands. You should feel like you want to be seen. You shouldn't want to hide and you definitely should feel meh!  If you're not feeling your brand, or your colours then it might be time to have a rethink!

Struggling to find brand colours that align with you? Book a free connection call.