In this series of Best practices: How to write company brand guidelines, deBroome will be sharing our expert knowledge of style guidelines – how to get started, what to include and questions to consider. We hope to give you the tools to create a solid foundation for your brand style guidelines.
Chapter 3: Brand colors
Color speaks volumes about a brand. Being an expression of the brand identity, colors influences consumers. As color attracts consumers, they evoke emotions – feelings of warmth, security, excitement, curiosity or home. Emotions drive decisions and in reference to brands, that equals profits. When a brand repeatedly markets with the same color, it strengthens their brand awareness. Consistent use of color provides a common link between departments, sub-brands and products. Therefore, it is essential to choose a brand’s colors carefully and communicate the guidelines clearly,
Color palette guidelines
Before we dive into the specifications of color, it is important to define a color palette or a palette. A color palette is the full range of colors that a brand sets as their identity. This combines all the colors mentioned below into one palette.
A color palette provides depth to brand. Within a brand guidelines, the purpose and the use of the colors should be described. Moreover a color palette should explain how the colors reflect the brand’s personality and what kind of consumers they want to attract.
Primary color
Primary colors help consumers to quickly identify a brand. These are the core colors of the brand. Commonly, primary colors are incorporated into a company’s logo. A company has between 1-3 primary colors but there can be more if desired.
deBroome colors in a circular diagram
Brand color formats
Colors are communicated in all different types of formats depending on its purpose. Below are the most common color formats.
- HEX: hexadecimal
- RGB: Red, Green, Blue
- CMYK: Cyan Magenta Yellow Key. Key is another term for black.
- PMS: Pantone Matching System
- NCS: Natural Color System
- RAL: Imperial Commission for Delivery Terms and Quality Assurance (Translated from German: Reichs-Ausschuß für Lieferbedingungen und Gütesicherung )
HEX
HEX code is the key to unlock web and digital design like HTML, CSS and SCSS. Colors are represented in a 6 number and/or letters combination. For example, black is #000000 and white is #ffffff.
RGB
RGB is also for digital use including television. For this format, RGB combines red, green and blue to create a spectrum of colors. For this format, black is 0,0,0 and white is 256,256,256.
CMYK
For print use, CMYK is ideal. Tiny dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black are overlapped to blend colors. Because of limitations with a printer, not all colors can be produced.
Black is represented as 0,0,0,100 and white is 0,0,0,0. For an even richer black, cyan and magenta can be added to 100% black, resulting in 50,50,0,100.
PMS
Recognizably referred as Pantone or Spot Colors, PMS is used for print and textile production. There are variations of Pantone depending on whether the paper is glossy or coated (Pantone C) and uncoated (Pantone U).
In standard Pantone, black is “PANTONE Black C”. A pure white is nonexistent as the creator assumes the image is printed on white paper.
NCS
Based on how the eye perceives color, NCS is used for paint. Since black is unnatural to the eye, there is not a pure black or white. However, a dark black is S 9000-N and light white is S 0300-N.
RAL
RAL is the standard color for tangible products used for varnish, powder coating and plastics in the trade, architecture and design industry. Jet black is RAL 9005 and pure white is RAL 9010.
Color swatches
Swatches are a predefined collection of colors that are easily accessible in media editing tools. In this case, it is a color palette file that includes all primary, secondary and other brand colors.
In particular, an Adobe Swatch Exchange file (.ase) is supported by InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. Within Adobe Photoshop, a Adobe Color (.aco) file can be created to collect different colors in HEX, RGB and CMYK color codes.
Do's & Don’ts
Examples of how to and how not to use colors are shown in the Do's & Don’ts section of the brand guidelines. This includes how to use colors against backgrounds, in combination of each other and text use.
