Is a color just a color?
For centuries color has been used to provide distinction between classes, businesses, kings, courts and everything else in between. So what exactly is in a color? Does it matter that purple has been used in connotations with royalty? Does it matter that most fast food places logos are red to stimulate your appetite? So a color is a color right? Not exactly. Below are a few examples with switched color palettes. Do you think the brand still looks the same? Does it give off the same vibe/aura in a different color?
So if colors are “just colors” these brands being switched should be exactly the same thing right? Starbucks stills feels warm and earthy in blue… Facebook is cool and collected in red. Nasa feels not so smart and more juvenile… And adobe… well, it’s a bit shocking to see a different color palette to icons that we rely so heavily on their color. Many would mistake photoshop for flash in that color palette. So, remember colors aren’t just colors… Research should be put into the color palette just like your branding.
Suggested Reading
A Guide to Choosing Colors for Your Brand
Can Color Affect Your Brand Positioning?
Chad Engle is currently slaying pixels @BoomtownROI. He abides in coastal Charleston, SC and enjoys living on an island. You should follow, harass or chat to him on twitter @chadengle and @fuelcreativity .
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These are perfect examples!
I guess that behind the color itselft and what notion and feeling it delivers, there’s also a point of branding. These logos look weird for us, since we have a strong brand awareness already in our mind. And it relates certain brands with certain colors.
Very true… If we would know Ford as red this wouldn’t look any different to us. However, we have history that tells us specific colors mean certain things that we always have to be conciously aware of.
Actually, these logos are so well-designed, they look fine in other colors.
Red Facebook is unpleasant to the eyes which would drive users away.
Navy Starbucks is more depressing than its Deep Green.
Microsoft uses 4 basic colors which make more sense than this derivatives.
Red Ford looks good.
Showing the logos we’re so familiar with in different colours was a great way to illustrate the point. To be honest, I’d have preferred a bit more of an in-depth analysis on each, discussing the colour symbolism involved and how our perception of the brand was changed based on the colour.
The Starbucks one looks fine in blue, but the others are definitely noticeably wrong!
I think that I like the Ford logo!?
Microsoft look instantly cooler!
This was a good post! Keep em coming!
Wow, i actually really like the starbucks logo in navy.
New commercial has part of a paragraph high-lited in a specific color blue….I totally called it!
Prudential.
I have no problem with the ROLLING STONE logo in other colors…
but the other ones is too weird like the RED facebook, is too agressive, Blue Starbucks is horrible, microsoft is like vomit, target looks like nothing in green, Ford in red is not bad but not what we want ….dont change colors of ADOBE and the programs.
Colors are very important in a logo design, it represents everything the company wants to say to the people.
We know that color plays a part in psychology as it has effects on emotions and the way we associate things value in the world. The logos themselves look fine as any logo should if it designed correctly. The cognitive dissonance is cause by seeing the logos in colors other than what we are used to. We see the logos as being “right” in their original pallet and anything outside of that is “wrong”. Had these logos been introduced to the world as they are in this post, we would be none the wiser.
Also consider, the colors in logos (or anything else for that matter) make a difference only to those who give it a value. To someone who’s colorblind, the color doesn’t carry the same value as someone with color vision. Why? Because he knows the colors he sees are not what is actually represented. But where the value of the logo is added is being able to recognize the logo and make an association with the brand.
The Media Temple and Fuel logos at the bottom of the page are void of color yet don’t “see” anything wrong with them because they still convey the same meaning as their colored counterparts.
Does this mean we forsake color and throw ourselves into a world grayscale? Lord NO! Not at all. Colors are a wonderful and are needed especially in guiding emotions. But color should not be the only supporting crutch for effective logo design.
Just for the record, I’m not colorblind :)
Nice post. Right-to-the-spot examples. The Microsoft logo really change the feeling of the company. It looks like a fake windows program or an original Microsoft imitator. It no longer looks modern and smart, it simply looks, childish.
I have to agree. These logos are so identifiable, so well designed, they can be recognized in any color palette. That’s the key to great logo design!
But suddenly: Ford looks cooler, Facebook is more in-your-face, Starbucks is more calming, The Rolling Stones look more like candy, and Microsoft… well, Microsoft is Mircrosoft.
Horrible colors! lol can’t like them!
Is this the part where ‘colors speak louder than words’ come into play? It’s a curious example you’ve shown here, not without impact. The first time I saw these images, something felt wrong and it didn’t feel the same as before. You’ve got a great point then – businesses should really consider color psychology before choosing a color for their brand ( and here’s me thinking that a logo is different from a brand ). Nice insights though, thanks!
There is a reason why color matching and selection is such a huge part of a branding process. Colors are connected with emotions and emotions evoke sentiments. The “feeling” of a brand relies so heavily on colors.
such a simple idea, really gets you thinking about if certain sites would have such success if they had been different colours.
It’s true , color does have an impact on the viewer’s opinion about the product. Companies know it and use it “against” us :P
The Adobe logos could easily work well in other colours as long as the colours are individual enough. Also Adobe does not rely heavily on a colour scheme once your in and using the software, however Facebook relies on it’s colour scheme through-out it’s website so colour is of more importance. Colour is not necessary to establish an identity, although it an be a useful way of encouraging recognition and familiarity.
Colors have a great impact over the web visitors especially. It changes the way web visitors feel the “brand” and its products / services. Thanks for sharing us the logos and images.
i like the new ford logo … it looks bad ass and quick
Wow, this is an excellent article! Color is such an important part of design and should be considered when designing. Colors can stimulate moods too which should also be incorporate in design. A design isn’t just a design, it’s a communication method. The goal is to effectively communicate a specific message to a targeted audience, color can play a very big role in that message.
Thanks for sharing.
Jen
@adrinahdesign
The Facebook logo makes me aggressive…
Interesting post. I’ve always had it in my head that there is no ‘right’ colour, as there are so many possibilities. I suppose this atleast shows that there is most definitely a ‘wrong’ colour.
Thanks for the post. I’ll join the chorus and say yes, the red Ford logo actually does look nice and I think it would work just fine.
Otherwise, the reasons Starbucks and the others chose those colors were good ones, and I’m sure a lot of careful thought and planning went into how they emotionally connected to the products and those who would consume them.
I think it’s interesting how we come to relate certain logos to certain colours, the Facebook logo above looks completely wrong for instance and it’s only some white text on a coloured background.
I personally think that the reason that so many of these look wrong is that people are so used to the real version. While colour can in some cases convey feeling, I’m sure Android and Ford would have done just fine in the colours above.
I personally think a colour is just a colour. All of those logo’s above, had they been like that from the start, would have been perfectly accepted as the real ones are. What makes them stand out, is that we know them as something else.
Perhaps more significant to ask is; Why do we expect a logo, brand or design to be a certain colour? In response to that, I imagine it’s because since birth we’ve been brainwashed into knowing or expecting that certain colours should relate to certain things, for the simplest of examples, blue is for a boy and pink is for a girl. Little do many people know that red was originally for boys as it was seen as a more masculine colour and blue for a girl for the opposite reason.
It’s these embedded beliefs in what we think we know about colours that shape the way that logo’s and designs are made today. In the future, were someone to step out of the conventional box, we may be having a similar discussion but with different outcomes.
I always struggle with colours when starting a project. Usually i will will work with 3 colours taken from the logo or a corporate photograph.
A colour is not just a colour. It’s how we connect with them.
What would be interesting to see is some of the more premium brands in black and yellow. They would instantly be transformed into a cheaper version of themselves (read: DISCOUNT). Think No Frills, Best Buy, Fido, etc.
Great post BTW.