caitlin e shogren

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How I chose my brand colors color palette for my small business

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Colors have become my kryptonite over the last few weeks. I would choose some brand colors and color palettes, but not sure if it represented me and my small business. It went like this for a few weeks.

I finally had enough and chose my colors, but I’ll let you in on a secret: I had help. I realized I couldn’t do it alone on this one. I asked my mentor to look at some of my adjectives and see if I was missing anything that could give me a few options on what to draw inspiration. 

After she responded with a few color palettes to choose from, I picked none of the ones she offered.

That’s not to say she wasn’t helpful. Her color palettes gave me the inspiration and direction that I wanted for my brand colors to represent. All of my colors happen to be from various options from her color palettes.

Creating a brand identity for your small business can be overwhelming. Every business owner has their responses to certain aspects of the process.

Along with my mentor’s help, here are some of the ways I was able to finally decide on my few brand colors color palette for my small business.

The Solopreneur Society’s Free 3-Part Series: How to Create a Foolproof Color Palette for Your Brand

The Solopreneur Society’s Series is where I got serious about creating lasting brand colors for my color palette. I had no idea what I was doing, so The Solopreneur Society’s series helped me start in the right direction to finish and choose my brand colors.

The easy part was to identify where I wanted to start and how I would move forward. I could pick my color palette and then get up to my primary brand colors. Still, I tended to falter once I got to the contrast and action color and couldn’t get past it to get to the supporting colors.

With this series, I had a starting point to develop my brand identity and how to find my brand colors color palette. Even as simple sounding as finding a ‘black’ and ‘white’ for my brand colors was a relief. I could breathe a bit easier about having my base for my color palette.

Colormind.com

Colormind helped me understand how my brand colors would interact together. I could see how my brand colors would play out on various elements of a website and incorporate them into platforms, such as social media and digital materials.

I was using The Solopreneur Society’s series as a starting point, but Colormind helped bring everything alive for me. I couldn’t see the abstract concept Solopreneur put forth to its audience. I needed to see how elements could play off and against each other to create the warm and homey feel I wanted to entice.

Colormind uses a different color palette to find your brand colors. You find more options about prioritizing your brand colors within your color palette rather than the color palette itself. If you’re struggling with using your brand colors color palette, consider plugging in the hex codes for some of your brand colors into colormind.com.

Ask a brand or graphic designer!

While this might seem like a last resort, many brand and graphic designers would love to help you develop your brand colors color palette. Sometimes you need an outside and objective opinion on what you are trying to do. Even if you figured out most of your business’s brand, see if a designer can do an audit on your selections to give you peace of mind.

I know for my brand colors color palette, I had a sense of what I wanted. I knew what I wanted, up to a point. Still, I needed some help getting past that point to take my brand colors color palette to a cohesive and unified level.

If the cost worries you, see if you can pay for an hour of their time rather than a whole package. Especially if you are like me, you might already have almost everything ready for your brand, and all you need is that last push to make it complete. 

I felt so crippled by not having defined brand colors or a color palette for my business. Once I had the help and tools, I knew I could find the combination that would work for my small business. 

Want to know more about my brand colors color palette selection? Join my enewsletter for more tips and ideas to develop your brand identity for your small business.