Logo Design and Emotion – Know What Colors Say About Your Brand

On The Logo Company blog, they designed an infographic showing how varying colors impacted emotions and how these emotions were tied with the dominant color of logos from around the world. These emotional impacts drive home the point that visual branding strategies begin with looking back – how identifying who the brand is, what they represent, and/or what they want to become is the first step in determining a successful color component the brand.

For instance, on the chart, green is associated with growth and health, and the logos that have green as the dominant color tend to rely on the portrayal of these two emotions/feelings to successfully market their brand, such as food-brand logos from Tropicana and Whole Foods, who obviously want to be seen as healthy brands.

An interesting emotional connection is show just to the outside of the “rings” of the main guide. The logos for NBC, Google, Microsoft and eBay are all listed next to “Diversity” and sit to the peripheral the guide due to the multicolored inclusions. All of these brands are known for (or hope to be known for) their wide-ranging brand portfolios. Their brands serves as umbrellas for a number of smaller sub-brands, many of which span the industrial spectrum. These logos are perfect examples for thinking outside the box when determining your brand color. Why settle for a monotone look that only partially describes your offerings? Instead, show the audience through your logo that you are multifaceted and have “earned” your rainbow of brand colors.

This can work against at brand, as well – you wouldn’t want to begin your strategy for a brand that is a leader in the financial sector with a logo that conveys youthfulness and boldness, so it would be wise to consider how much red you’ll include.

Once again, as we’ve seen in brand strategy discussions many times, knowing who and what your brand is can be just as important to success as having the perfect logo or name.

Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
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