How to Choose Brand Colours: A Practical Guide for Small Businesses
Brand colours shape how customers feel before they read a word. Learn how to choose a colour palette that fits your market, stands out and works on screen.
Colour is usually the first thing people notice about a brand and the last thing they forget. It sets expectations before anyone reads a headline: premium or affordable, playful or serious, traditional or modern. Yet most small businesses pick their colours based on personal preference, and end up looking exactly like their competitors. Here is a more deliberate way to choose.
Start with your market, not your favourite colour
Before opening a colour picker, list your five closest competitors and screenshot their websites and logos side by side. You will often see a pattern: every dental clinic in blue and white, every food brand in red and yellow, every eco brand in green. That pattern is useful information. You can choose to follow the category convention so customers instantly understand what you do, or break it deliberately to stand out. Both are valid. Doing it by accident is not.
Understand what colours signal, loosely
Colour psychology is often overstated, and meanings vary across cultures, but some broad associations are reliable enough to use. Blues tend to signal trust and stability, which is why banks and tech companies love them. Greens suggest health, growth and nature. Reds and oranges create energy and urgency. Black and deep neutrals read as premium and confident. Bright, unexpected colours, like the electric lime we use at Fazed, signal boldness and a modern edge.
Use these as starting points, not rules. Context, shade and combination matter more than the hue alone.
Build a palette, not just a colour
A working brand palette usually has three layers. A primary colour that people will associate with you. One or two secondary or accent colours for highlights, buttons and calls to action. A set of neutrals, typically a near-black, a near-white and a few greys, which will actually make up most of your website and documents.
A common rule of thumb is roughly 60% neutral, 30% primary and 10% accent. The accent is your most valuable colour: reserve it for the things you want people to click.
Test it where it will actually live
A palette that looks beautiful in a design file can fail in the real world. Test your colours on a phone screen in daylight, printed on a business card, embroidered on a uniform and as a tiny social media profile picture. Check text contrast against accessibility guidelines: low-contrast grey text on a white background is one of the most common reasons websites feel hard to read.
Document it and stay consistent
Once chosen, write down the exact values: HEX and RGB for screens, CMYK for print, and Pantone if you produce merchandise. Share them with everyone who creates anything for your brand. Consistency is what turns a colour into recognition. A brand that uses three slightly different shades of blue across its signage, website and Facebook page looks less trustworthy, even if customers cannot say why.
When to revisit your colours
If your colours are hard to read, clash with your photography, or make you indistinguishable from competitors, it is worth refreshing them. Often a modest adjustment, a deeper shade or a sharper accent, is enough without a full rebrand.
Your website is where your palette works hardest. Our 7-Day Website Package includes setting up your brand colours properly across every page, with accessible contrast and a clear accent for your calls to action.
Need help with this? See our Brand identity service.