A startup could offer the most innovative software, the most disruptive service, the greatest thing ever available for purchase in the history of commerce -- but if the company color scheme is off-putting, its customers might decide to shop elsewhere.
What color conveys about a brand is more complex than you think. To find out more, we asked a panel of successful young entrepreneurs to share their tips for picking the right palette for their demographic and product. Here's what they had to say.
1. Know Your Audience
Color choice should resonate with the audience. For example, a pastel pink and yellow site color palette would typically be a big turnoff for the first group, but could strongly resonate with the moms.
Second, choose colors that represent the emotions that your brand intends to elicit. A professional law firm tends to position itself differently than a hipster clothing store. Likewise, the colors should match the positioning. - Patrick Conley, Automation Heroes
2. Follow the 60-30-10 Rule
3. Analyze the Competition
4. Think Psychologically
For example, if your goal is to get attention, use high-contrast colors like black-yellow, red-white, etc. (If you think about it, those are the colors of caution and stop signs.) But if your goal is to evoke a sense of peace of mind/serenity, go with peaceful colors like blue/purple/green. - Kenny Nguyen, Big Fish Presentations
5. Differentiate
6. Go Past Color to Personality
7. Check Out COLOURlovers.com
Once you settle on a color scheme, it's really important to see how the colors look on different monitors and devices. Sometimes colors look totally rad on an iPad but terrible on a PC monitor. Or the colors might appear really different on a smartphone than they do on a laptop. Remember that usability comes first -- don't use colors at your users' expense. - Jim Belosic, ShortStack/Pancake Labs
8. Be Intentional
Think about where you want your site visitors to look. What do you want them to do? How should they interact? What actions do you want them to take? Use a bolder accent color to help the user navigate your content and bring attention to your most important messages. And remember: DON'T GO OVERBOARD. Keep it simple. - Matt Cheuvront, Proof Branding
9. Do Your Research
10. Think Big
