Here at Banter Media, many of our clients are start up businesses that are just trying to get their head around their new product or service. Most of the time the logo design is the last thing on their minds when it comes to building their business from the ground up. But it should be! Your logo, the colours and fonts that you use and your general “look and feel” is essential to building not just a company, but a brand.
Here I’ve assembled five simple tips to keep in mind when deciding on the colours and fonts that fit your brand:
Tip 1: Know yourself
First things first: what does your company do? Think deeper than “We sell t-shirts”. Think about what kind of value your business brings to the customer, and why they should buy t-shirts from you and not the guy next door. Starting to position yourself as a brand is about conceptualising the message that your business has to offer. So instead of “We sell t-shirts”, think about your unique selling point and bring that to the forefront of your thoughts when deciding on a colour scheme. Such as “We sell unique luxury urban street-wear for the young at heart.”
Tip 2: Know your neighbour
Now that you know what you’re doing, it’s time to check out the competition. Do some research and check out other businesses that offer similar services. At this point there are two ways to go: you can stand out or you can go with the flow. If you sell flowers and all the other flower shops in your area use pink and yellow in their logo, maybe they’re on to something? Maybe after years of trial and error they have found that pink and yellow are the best colours for the business, they are bright and cheerful and they keep customers coming back. But maybe it’s just a coincidence? All the flower shops use yellow because all the other flower shops use yellow. So you may want to stand out from the crowd and make your logo green. The choice is up to you, are you a leader or a follower?
Tip 3: Be decisive
The most important tip I can give you as a graphic designer is this: be decisive. If you are creating a skin care line and you’ve decided that you want your website to be a classy black and gold with a minimal design, stick to it! Everyone will have their opinion and some might have good points, but don’t throw it all out because your great aunt thinks it’s too dark or your cousin’s girlfriend who took an art course for a week says gold is so last year. If you and your design team have made the decision that this colour palette is what aligns best with your brand’s message, then stick to your guns!
Tip 4: Colour codes
We all know that certain colours have certain connotations for the majority of people. Simply speaking, when you see a certain colour, you subconsciously react in a very specific ways. For example red can connote energy, passion, anger or love. While blue can trigger feelings of calm, stability, peace and tranquility. This comes from years of conditioning from the time we are born and is specific to different cultures. That’s why many brands use similar colour palettes.
So here is the fun part, think of the kind of company you have and the emotions you want your customers to feel, and you can, by a kind of reverse engineering, discover what kind of colours would be best for your business.
For example if you are in healthcare, and you want your clients or patients to trust you and see you as a stable and calm authority. Then you would choose a combination of blue and grey tones.
Tip 5: Fun with fonts
Typography is amazing! It can do so much to “set the mood” for your brand as your colours. There are literally millions of fonts out there, but they all fall into one of the following categories:Serif (e.g. Times New Roman, Baskerville)
- Sans serif (e.g. Arial, Helvetica) Semi-serif (e.g. Rotis Semi Sans, Myriad)
- Slab (e.g. Bookman Old Style, Rockwell)
- Script (e.g. Brush Script, Lucida Handwriting)
- Decorative (e.g. Jokerman, Broadway)
The same process can be applied here. Certain fonts elicit certain emotions, and you can determine what kind of font you need based on the kind of emotion you want to evoke. Serif fonts are quite classy and official. Sans serif fonts are more modern and clean. Scripts and decorative fonts should be used sparingly and only if your company has a very quirky and out of the box style.
So for example if you have a legal firm, you want people to know that you are professional and that you will treat their case with care. Therefore you will choose a serif font.
I hope that these tips and tricks have helped you figure out how to choose colours and fonts for your business. Choosing the right “look and feel” for your business can really go a long way in cementing your brand in your customer’s mind. If you still think you need some assistance, you can always get a professional to help you. Here at Banter Media we work with you to create your brand identity from the very beginning, creating beautiful logos that you and your customers can be proud of.
Hi there,
I was doing a bit of research on fonts when I stumbled upon this blog. We’ve put together this 20 mesmerizing designs that will be right for brand fonts. Our users found it useful and we thought your readers might enjoy it too. 🙂
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If you have any additional questions regarding Canva, feel free to ask. I will definitely love to answer your queries. Have a great day!
https://designschool.canva.com/blog/canva-for-work-brand-fonts/
Hi Bella,
Thanks for the comment – I am sure our non-design savvy readers will make full use of it.
This a really brilliant and creative ways to determine what elements is best suited for your brand. I love it! Thanks for this great share.
A well-written article, these tips are brilliant. Thanks for sharing these.
Thanks Jerome! Glad it was useful!