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Picking Colors For Your Website – How To Pick The Right Ones

Having a website is a great way to raise awareness about your product or service and win new customers. If you are just starting out with website design or development, there are many things to think about. These include the platform you host the website on, the hosting package you choose, plugins you might use, and how and where you store customer information. You will also need to think about design elements like mobile responsiveness, themes, branding, and colors.

This article will focus on the use of color within a website. Usually, it is linked to a business’s existing brand, which can make things simpler. If you are starting from scratch or a customer is in the process of rebranding, you can help them along by giving them some information on what people associate different colors with and what works best for different industries.

The Importance of Branding

Firstly, a quick note on the importance of branding. Without a brand, a company would find it very hard to compete. A brand is part of what makes a company different and stand out. It is much more than a logo. A brand guide will cover everything from the logo, the fonts that are used, the colors in the brand, and the tone of voice. It might also include how photos should look and where communication channels are used. If you are designing for a client with an existing brand, then you should ask to see their brand book or brand bible. This will tell you everything you need to know.

Using Color on a Website

If your client doesn’t have a brand or you are designing something completely new it will be useful to know about colors and what they mean. If you were doing law firm web development, the colors you use are likely to be different from a website selling children’s toys or a car garage. Here’s a breakdown of how customers may perceive different colors.

Black – Black is a heavy color and can be overpowering and distracting when used in large blocks. Common associations are authority, fear, rebellion, and elegance.

White – Very commonly used for website backgrounds because it highlights anything that it is underneath. White could mean innocence, purity, and perfection.

Red – Another color that needs to be used sparingly. People usually associate this with danger because of road signs like stop signs but also strength, power, and royalty.

Green – Used a lot in the technology space, having green in branding can be used to convey growth, harmony, freshness, and environment.

Yellow – Yellow isn’t as common in branding but it features in the logos of McDonalds, Ferrari, and Nikon. Yellow can be used to portray happiness, energy, and loyalty.

Purple – Luxury brands usually make a lot of use of purple in their marketing and logos. That’s because is it associated with luxury, dignity, wisdom and wealth.

Blue – Blue is another technology company favorite, which is probably due to its links with intelligence, confidence, and trust.

James Daniels

James Daniels is a freelance writer, business enthusiast, a bit of a tech buff, and an overall geek. He is also an avid reader, who can while away hours reading and knowing about the latest gadgets and tech, whilst offering views and opinions on these topics.