What often is neglected and overlooked, is the choice and consideration of what colours to use when designing, printing and strategizing your brand identity and print collateral.
Colours aid in creating and communicating your brand message, spark emotions as well as elevate your audience engagement with your digital and print material, such as posters, brochures and business cards.
Colour Theory is the key reference when It comes to figuring out colours. It feeds into the choice of your colours, and the colour scheme. It is one of the most integral parts of building your print marketing strategy, that effectively represents your brand and company.
The Colour Wheel
The fundamental tool that lays the foundation for anything colour-related, is the colour wheel.
Essentially, what the colour wheel shows is the relationship between colours the connections between different colours based on the red, yellow, and blue content of each colour.
Impress Printers’ team of designers and print specialists are eager to assist you in making your branding and identity on your print material the best it can be, with an effective marketing foundation but still keeping it looking appealing and inviting.
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To break it down:
- Primary colours: red, blue and yellow. These 3 make up the basic colours that can’t be simplified into any colours.
- Secondary colours: orange, green, and purple. These are made by mixing two primary colours. Mixing yellow and red makes orange; mixing blue and yellow makes green and mixing blue and red creates purple.
- Intermediate/tertiary colors are created by mixing both primary and secondary colours to form a hybrid, such as yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green.
Making colours work in harmony
The 4 main colours in printing is CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (another word for black). RGB: Red, Green and Blue are the main colours that are used to create screen-based images.
Your choice of colours should be based on what would be an amplified aesthetic appeal and an improved user experience with your print material. Therefore, it is a good idea to think carefully about what colour scheme you will use at the start of your design process, especially when it comes to print.
There are many dynamic colour schemes to suit your brand’s mood and message, and it’s good to experiment before making a final decision; play around with samples and see what works best. Create colour mood boards, with images and references of inspiring colour palettes, as a guide throughout your colour picking process. Or, refer to Pantone paint colour boxes/indexes – they may assist you in establishing a strong colour by hand, especially when you already have somewhat of an idea of what colours you want.
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Colour Temperature
Colours possess emotion and therefore affect the look and feel of your website:
- Warm colours: includes yellow, orange, and red. These colours are said to reflect feelings such as passion, power, happiness, and energy.
- Cool colours: including green, blue, and purple. Cool colors are said to reflect calmness, meditation, and soothing impressions.
- Neutral Colours: These are not said to reflect any particular emotions. These colours include grey, brown, white, and black.
Ultimately, your choice of colours in your brand and company’s representation is crucial in establishing consistency, a unique identity, capturing your audience and keeping your print material looking great.
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Source: interaction-design.org