How to Choose a Brand Color Palette That Actually Works

Branding Basics
Written By Veronica Jacobs
 
Designer selecting brand colors from a wide array of fan-shaped color swatches on a wooden desk — perfect for illustrating how to choose a brand color palette.
 

Ever spent hours scrolling Pinterest for the perfect brand colors… only to still feel unsure?

You’re not alone. Choosing colors for your brand can feel like a huge decision. Will this make me look professional enough? Too trendy? Too bland? What if I just really like sage green… but it doesn't mean anything?

Here’s the truth: your brand colors are more than just pretty visuals — they help create recognition, build trust, and evoke the exact vibe you want your dream clients to feel.

In this post, I’ll walk you through a simple, no-stress process I use as a brand designer to help clients choose color palettes that actually work — even if you don’t consider yourself a “visual person.”

 

Step 1: Define Your Brand Personality

Collage-style poster featuring expressive words like “Bold,” “Calm,” “Whimsical,” and “Grounded” in colorful fonts, surrounded by eclectic artistic elements — representing different brand personality traits.

Before you pick a single color, you need to understand your brand’s vibe. Colors aren’t just decoration — they communicate emotion and personality.

Ask yourself:
 What 3 words describe the way I want my brand to feel?

Here are some words to spark ideas:

  • Bold

  • Calm

  • Whimsical

  • Luxe

  • Friendly

  • Grounded

  • Playful

  • Minimal

  • Edgy

Once you define your brand personality, your color choices will have direction and feel more intentional — instead of just based on your favorite shade of blue.

 

Step 2: Understand Basic Color Psychology

Color psychology wheel chart showing emotional associations with colors like blue for trust, red for passion, green for nature, and yellow for optimism — used to guide branding choices.

Colors send signals — and each one evokes a different feeling. Here’s a quick cheat sheet of what common colors tend to communicate:

  • Black- Mystery, elegance, modern, bold

  • White- Clean, fresh, minimal, purity

  • Yellow- Optimistic, youthful, clarity, energy

  • Orange- Confident, playful, enthusiastic

  • Pink- Playful, charming, feminine, delicate

  • Red- Strength, passionate, excitement, warmth

  • Purple- Luxe, creative, spiritual, intuitive

  • Blue- Trust, professionalism, calm, stability

  • Green- Nature, growth, wellness, balance

  • Brown- Grounded, reliable, humble, organic

You don’t have to follow these meanings rigidly, but being aware of them helps you make more intentional, aligned choices.

 

Step 3: Collect Visual Inspiration

Moodboard collage featuring neutral and warm-toned images with words like “Soft,” “Minimal,” “Calming,” and “Neutral” — representing a balanced and cohesive brand color palette style.

Once you know how you want your brand to feel and what your colors should communicate, it’s time to look for visual inspiration — this time with direction.

Instead of endlessly scrolling Pinterest, try this:

  • Create a moodboard in Canva or Pinterest

  • Pin/save images, textures, or colors that match your brand’s personality

  • Pay attention to what themes and tones keep showing up

This step turns your vibe into something visual — and keeps you from picking colors that look nice but don’t reflect your brand.

 

Step 4: Build a Balanced Palette

Now you’re ready to build your actual palette! Use tools like Co0lors or Canva’s palette generator to pull hex codes from your moodboard.

Here’s a simple palette structure I recommend:

  • 1-3 Primary Colors – your main brand colors (these are the color you will use the most)

  • 1–3 Accent Colors – bold or contrasting shades for buttons, highlights, or section breaks

  • 1 Light Neutral Color – for backgrounds, whitespace, or soft elements

  • 1 Dark Neutral Color – for contrast in text, headers, or overlays

Quick Examples:

Soft & Minimal Color Palette:

Bold & Vibrant Color Palette:

Color palette swatches labeled with hex codes and roles such as light neutral, primary, accent, and dark neutral — used to test brand color accessibility and contrast.
Muted brand color palette featuring light and dark shades of neutrals, pinks, and purples with hex codes labeled — representing a soft, sophisticated balanced color palette for branding.

Ask yourself:

Do these colors reflect my brand personality — especially when used together?

 

Step 5: Test Contrast & Refine

Design is about more than aesthetics — it also needs to be accessible. That means checking for contrast between your colors.

Use these tools:

Aim for at least half of your color pairs to pass contrast checks, especially for text on backgrounds.

Screenshot of Toolness Accesible Color Matrix showing color swatches with hex codes and a contrast checker grid for testing text readability across light and dark backgrounds.
Screenshot of the Tanaguru Contrast Finder showing an inaccessible color pairing and accessible color pairing suggestions based on contrast ratio, with visual samples and contrast scores to ensure web accessibility compliance.
 

Step 6: Finalize & Use your NEw Color Palette

 
Screenshot from Colormind.io showing a brand color palette applied across a sample website layout, including UI components, cards, headers, and typography — demonstrating real-world palette usage.
 

Use a tool like Colormind.io to preview your palette on a mockup website layout — so you can see it in context, not just as swatches.

Once you’re happy, save your final palette in a simple brand guide, or create a Canva template with your color codes built in.

Reminder: Done is better than perfect. Your palette should feel like you, not like whatever’s trending this week.

Ways to Use Your Color Palette:

  • Website backgrounds + text styles

  • Social media templates

  • Buttons + call-to-actions

  • Brand photography styling

  • Client presentations or PDFs

  • Packaging and printed materials

 

🛠 Helpful Tools Recap:

Bonus:

  • Big Color Palette – generate themed palettes with up to 10 colors (less user-friendly, but still useful)

 

Still feeling stuck?

I’d love to help you build a brand that reflects your personality, your values, and your vibe.
Let’s create something beautiful together!

Veronica Jacobs
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