Colour ~ the Secret Spice in Branding

Cooking is important for your health and survival, same way, branding is essential for your brand health - and the secret to it all? Colours.

Take the ingredients, chop them up, sauté them, add all the spices, let it simmer and then add more ingredients. Let it simmer some more. Smell those aromas and then take it off the heat.

That’s the general step by step guide to Indian cooking.

Of course it is a lot more intricate and more nuanced than that, but the essence is in those steps.Now, here’s the thing - I don’t enjoy cooking, but necessity made this something that I’ve had to get into. Do I understand the nuances of cooking and the finer art of spices? Not really, but it’s a learning curve and it’s a forgiving art, most times.

Cooking and design are similar in that aspect.

Cooking and Branding

While in cooking, you need the ingredients and spices to complete your dish, branding is getting all the elements with a secret ingredient that ties it all together.

With branding design, I get the elements, the voice, fonts and visuals. But the secret ingredient? It’s colour.

‘Colours tend to be my spices that sync everything through a brand.’

Colour the secret spice?

Bear with me while I explain this random analogy.

Cooking is important for your health and survival, same way, branding is essential for your brand health. While I can explain what the ingredients of the brand are (voice, fonts, visuals), the focus here is on the spices. The ones that give any design (or food) that pizazz.

• Colours are what spice up your design and make it connect through different platforms and mediums. For example, the same neutral tones with an accent of blues through social media and print medium cements the brand identity.

• Colour makes a brand recognisable. And identifiable. A well curated colour palette signals a brand that communicates to it’s target audience well.

• Colour guides the audience reaction. While pastels shout feminine, whites and blacks signal classical; and bold screams confidence.

Quick brand checklist:

Look at your brand and check :

• Are your brand colours consistent across platforms?

• Do they reflect your brand mood and values?

• Are you switching them often—or have you found your spice blend?

Colours, whether it is just a classic black and white tie brand. Or pastels, to highlight your artwork. Or perhaps bold colours that speak your brand language. Colours are important.

How are you using the spices in your brand today? You don’t have to be a chef to cook, and you certainly don’t need to be an artist to brand well. Just knowing what spices to use—and when—makes all the difference.

If you need help, with your branding, do comment below or look through my pricing guide to get 1-on-1 feedback.