Design Excellence Goes Beyond Guesswork

When it comes to branding and marketing, there is plenty of theory around color and psychology and how to evoke certain emotions by using certain colors. As a communications firm with a strong design practice, Cause Communications (HCC) understands that color choices must be strategic. But our seasoned experience has shown that color is too subjective to be universally translated to specific feelings.

When our team is working with clients, we take into account universally accepted concepts, but we know how wide-ranging those concepts can be. For example, some people claim that red evokes passion and boldness while others think it’s youthful and carefree. Our approach is to start with the general perceptions of the target audience. From a design standpoint, it’s important to remember that the audience is our client’s audience – not the client themselves. Even though clients make the ultimate decisions on color and branding, they have to remember that results are achieved when they consider how the brand will resonate with those they’re trying to reach.

Therefore, your organization’s branding and color scheme should support the personality you want to portray and what will resonate best with the intended audience, instead of relying on stereotypical color associations. In my experience, the studies that say men prefer bold, primary colors, and women prefer pastels are not as definitive as the person’s age, generation and cultural experience of those colors. Also, keep in mind the audience’s expectations in relation to the industry. Environmental organizations use green for a reason, but don’t let this assumption lead you to blend in with competitors.

In short, we keep in mind all of these components when coming up with a visual identity solution for an organization. Here are three color exercises that we like to go through with clients at HCC:

Especially within the world of nonprofit branding, it’s important to start by looking at the landscape. You want to stand out from others in your space, so we make sure to look at the logos and visual identity of likeminded organizations to be sure our idea and colors are different.

If we’re evolving an existing logo and identity, we determine whether there is equity in the existing colors. There might be a strategic reason to keep the same color or only add an accent color. For example, a client had asked us to update their current logo, which was a traditional brick red, to better reach a younger audience. In the refresh, we chose not to abandon the red, but we brightened it and made it more energetic and eye-catching.

Overall, we seek to understand the adjectives the client is aiming to capture and who their audience is, especially the audience’s gender and age. By considering unique perspectives alongside conventional wisdom about generations and populations, we help clients choose colors and designs that suit their desired personality and public perception.

As Creative Director, my job is about balancing strategy with the dynamics of personal bias. It’s challenging but always fun and stimulating!