Expert Tip: Establish Your Brand Color Palette Today!

Depending on which version of Build Your Brand you read, you may or may not see the sample color palettes found in the style guide section in full color. For those of you wanting to take a closer look at it, I'm posting the same color palettes here.

Color style guides are essential for any branded company. Establishing a brand color palette entails choosing the exact hex/RGB/CMYK/PMS/pantone identifier for material you produce (although you don't need your colors in all of these formats, just the ones that serve you).

This consistency of color is happening around you all the time, not only by businesses, but movies, TV shows, or anything else branded in today's world. Each of these are all using the exact shade of of a certain color every time that color is used, which helps your brain cue in to what brand you are looking at.

Examples of color style guides included in Build Your Brand include:

Wordpress

Dropbox

eBay

Adobe

MailChimp

Charts like these are not only used internally to design packaging, websites, etc., but they are also reference guides for contractors who will be producing branded materials. It is essential, for example, that branded materials print true-to-color, so any printer will have this guide to reference as they work.

Other contractors who may use a style guide like this include an advertising agency tasked with creating a print ad or video. You can bet that any large brand is going to be very particular about the colors of any visual elements and reject off-colors or anything else off-brand.

Even if you’re a little guy, this is a great lesson to learn from the big boys that will likely save you a lot of money down the road. After all, being nitpicky about color doesn’t cost you a dime. In fact, it saves everyone time. And in business, time is money.