Color Choice In Branding: What's Your Signature Color?

In previous blogs, we've talked about how to mix colors in your clothing, and I've worked with individual clients on which colors work best for their skin tone, but today I want to talk about the importance of color for recording artists' branding and marketing.

The infographic below (provided by stealthblog.net) discusses the meaning and representation behind various colors. Everything has meaning, and color is no different. When helping artists articulate the message they want to send through their image and their music, we are there to remind them that what they put out to their audience (i.e. their look, their marketing materials, etc.) will either support, confuse or contradict their message. The goal is to always make decisions (even on the small things like color or font style) that intentionally support their message.

While not every color is represented in this infographic, it gives the reader a basic understanding of why certain colors are used to market different things. Not only is it important to pay attention to the various meanings of a color, but also to the meaning of the different shades of a particular color. For instance, while the color orange has a generally positive meaning, the darker shade of orange represents something rather negative and unfavorable.

We all have a favorite color of our own. If you look at the various meanings for your own favorite color, you will most likely find that you respond or relate to the meanings of your favorite color. My favorite color has always been blue (it was always the shortest crayon in my crayon box when I was a child because I wanted to color everything blue!). The meanings of the color blue also represent what I want to uphold in both my business and my personal life.

For recording artists, obviously you wouldn't want every album or project to have the same color in its artwork and graphics, but perhaps an accent of your signature color (either in the lettering or text) along with a dominant color that represents the general mood of the collections of songs on the album. How's this for a little fun: take a color of paint that fits the mood of each song on your album or EP, and mix those paints together to see what you get! This could be the color for your packaging and marketing of your next project!

As always, have fun experimenting with color, while staying true to your message.

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