How To Choose a Color Palette That Wows And Represents Your Brand Voice

Whether you hire a designer or not, you will need to select a color palette for your site. This can be overwhelming if you’ve never thought about it before. However, if you have decorated for a party, for a holiday, or accented your living room, you have some idea of what it entails. In today’s post, we will cover where to go for inspiration, ideas and tips, how to turn those ideas and tips into palettes, the psychology behind colors, and how Squarespace makes it easier for  you.

COLOR INSPIRATION

A good place to start is Pinterest. You can search color palettes, mood boards, and start collecting pins of visuals that strike you. Don’t get lost in this step. You could do this daily for an infinite period of time. Limit yourself to 30 minutes or an hour, or a smaller amount of time spread over a few days. What you are looking for in the overall scheme, is commonality. This is where your detective skills come in. Any Nancy Drew or Marshmallow fans out there? IFKYK. Questions to ask include: Is there a color that is included in most palettes? Are you mostly neutral, or vibrant? Do you notice all rose gold images, or a lot of blue? Note the similarities. If there are hex codes listed, keep track of them so you can refer to them later.

If hex is what you associate with spells, I’m with you. We’ll learn more about that later. Right now, just write them down. Once you have the common colors, look at your favorites with fresh eyes. Why do you like them? This is not the time for a teenage grunt answer. Your answer needs to be in words. What do you feel when you look at the images? For instance, I gravitate toward autumn colors. This is not surprising. It is my favorite season. My birthday occurs during this time, and I like the freedom and smells of the outdoors, crunching in leaves, and being cozy with a cinnamon drink. So, when I was selecting colors for my website, although I liked the sleekness of an all black and white palette, it wasn’t the feeling of who I am or what I’m trying to convey. I want a cozy, jumping in leaves, free spirit vibe where people feel comfortable and can be themselves. Sophisticated and sleek are just not my style, nor is it the style of who I want to attract.

Another place for inspiration is magazines and catalogs. I have a Pier One Thanksgiving ad I clipped a few years ago, because I thought the table setting was gorgeous. At that time, I had no idea it was a fall palette, because it was pastel and had green and rose, not what I would associate with traditional fall colors. The white was not a crisp, stark, white, but a more subdued cream. I ended up decorating my bedroom in those colors. I also kept a Staples flyer because I loved the blue wall color of an office, paired with a brown desk and gray accents. Another fall color palette. Notebook covers, book covers, decorations in your favorite store—start paying attention to what draws your eye and why. Snap pictures and keep a folder on your phone. (I will explain later what to do with them.) If you are at a coffee shop and see inspiration, or at the library, or looking at art at your child’s school—take pictures.

And, one of my favorite places to see colors in action—is Lowe’s paint section! Just looking at paint samples will not help much, unless you already have colors in mind and are comparing shades. However, there are pamphlets already put together, with colors that complement each other, and assigned a style. Modern, traditional, bold—which ones stand out to you? Again, take pictures or collect samples and put why you are drawn to particular colors in words.

COLOR PSYCHOLOGY

If you are already aware of such a thing, you are further along than I was. This topic is a whole blog/course in itself, so we will just touch on it here. But, it’s important to think about if you are doing your own site, and important when working with a designer, so you can convey what you envision for your brand. And, if you’d like to learn a little more, here’s a great guide to get you started. Get it HERE.

Begin with 3-5 adjectives of how you want people to feel when they land on your website. This is your first impression. Look at the colors you have selected and match any adjectives to the corresponding colors. If a color is overused, consider a different shade. If it is a trending color, decide whether you will still like it in a year from now. For instance, if your brand is professional, sophisticated and meticulous, would yellow be a good fit? But, what about gold?

Keep track of your ideas.

Now What?

So what do you do once you have palette ideas? Canva, coolers.com and imagecolorpicker.com can generate palettes from the images you have been collecting. Upload your photo and depending on the site, you can either hover and select which portion of the photo to use, or Canva will have the photo colors as a palette, with the pro version. You can also save your color palette with the pro version, so I recommend upgrading if you will be using Canva for your graphic designs. You can then play around with the different colors in Canva and share your ideas with a designer, or pick your favorite as your palette. Squarespace has a style guide for 3 colors (in addition to black and white) and it will generate color options for your pages. This is really helpful to stay on brand, but also to test which combination works best for you in each section you are creating. You can customize it as well, it’s just a great jumping off place.

Have fun with the process. And as always, if I can answer any questions, ask away!