A harmonious colour scheme that compliments the tone of your brand is essential when designing your website. Choosing the right one can be tricky, but if done right will greatly benefit your company identity and appeal to your target audience. According to Tic Toc Digital, when a consumer makes an assessment of products or branding 90% is dependent on colour.
Choosing a colour scheme is a strategic process of web design and works to effectively unite your brand. Below are a few tips on how to make sure you’ve chosen the right colour scheme for your brand.
Compliment your logo:
Consistency is key with branding and this definitely extends to the design of your website. Using the colours of your branding not only visibly ties your business together but makes it easier for your audience to identify your brand amongst competitors. Iconic logos often become so recognisable due to their choice in colour, which is evident across their entire branding. We would suggest having the dominant colour of your website the same as the dominant colour in your logo to achieve a professional and unified tone.
Identify your company personality:
Identifying your company personality is very much dependent on the product or service you offer. This can offer some direction towards which colour scheme would be an ideal fit for your website. A company offering a financial advice service is likely to have a different colour scheme to an amusement park website. Abbey Masterbatch is an example of a company that goes against standard rules of colour schemes for web design, however, it works. As a seller of masterbatch products in a wide range of pigments, the company has opted for a rainbow footer to relate to their product range. As for the text, blue is used for headings and black for the body of text to relate to the logo and to not over saturate the page.
Relate to your target audience:
Make sure your colour scheme is well-received by your chosen target audience. It may be worth researching the competition to see how they use colour in their web design to appeal to the target audience. A bolder more adventurous design is perhaps more suited to a younger audience and an older audience would benefit more from a simple colour scheme in order to avoid your website looking overcomplicated.
Consider colour theory:
In order to suit your business needs, it is essential your colour scheme adheres to colour theory. There are basic rules which every company should follow when determining their branding style. As colour can evoke certain emotional responses from an audience, it is essential your website evokes the right response for your business. For example, green is often associated with eco-friendly practices. Therefore it is recommended to be wary of this colour in branding in order to avoid being perceived as ‘green-washing’ your business.
How to use your colour scheme:
It is important to remember that the colour scheme for your website should support the user experience. Dominant colours could be used to direct your audience and improve navigation, they could also be used to draw user attention to call to actions and increase your conversion rates. Accent colours are ideal for secondary information, but try to only use one or two accent colours in order to not over complicate your website. In order to achieve the right accent colour, consider shades and tints of your dominant colour so you can be confident you have a complimenting colour scheme.
