If you are thinking about redesigning your corporate identity, there are many things to consider when choosing a logo. What font should you use? Is it an icon or just a type treatment? Should you include a tagline? And you shouldn’t underestimate the power of the color you choose to represent your company.

Every color evokes certain emotions, and often triggers pre-existing associations to other brands both within your category and outside of it. Let’s take a quick trip around just a small portion of the color wheel to see what responses basic colors will cause and a brief look at some brands that take advantage of the emotional power of color.

Red:
Red is the color of action, energy, and excitement. It’s no wonder that many logos for sports teams, theme parks and impulse purchase providers make use of this highly motivating color.

Blue:
Blue is viewed as reliable, trustworthy and safe. Because of this, we see a huge amount of this color in the healthcare, banking and corporate world.

Green:
Green may be the color of money, but it is also closely associated with nature. It creates a sense of calm that can be seen heavily in the spa and beauty industry, and more recently in the food industry to represent all things organic and wholesome.

Yellow:
Yellow comes off as friendly, cheerful and warm. That’s why yellow is commonly found in logos for children’s products. Below, you’ll also see a slightly richer shade of yellow, used (appropriately) for an icon of luxury travel.

Obviously, this is an extremely small sample of the colors, combinations and brands out there making good use of the power of color to evoke an emotional response in the consumer. There are all sorts of interesting things you can do to make your logo stand out in your category and in general, without sacrificing the integrity of your brand. Feel free to contact us if you’d like to see more samples of logos for both luxury and non-luxury brands.