Brand Identity Essentials

COLOR4 Color Choices

We could dedicate an entire book to the subject of color—and plenty of people have. As a designer, there’s a lot to learn about using color, from the psychology to the science. When developing a graphic identity, however, perhaps the single most important thing to know about color is at what point in the process to make decisions about it.

Color brings such an immediate emotional quality to a mark—it can tempt designers into jumping ahead and designing with a particular color in mind. Resist this temptation. Complete your initial design for each new mark without regard to the color(s) it will eventually take on. Because most graphic identities face color limitations depending on the application, you’ll need to ensure that ...