Trying to choose the perfect colors for your brand?

UPDATED AUGUST 2026

I get it, girl! Choosing your brand colors sounds simple until you're staring at a million color palettes wondering which one actually feels like you.

Your brand colors do more than make your business look pretty. They help create a recognizable visual identity and set the tone for how people experience your brand.

And here's the good news: your brand colors don't have to be permanent.

Your business will grow. Your style may change. Your audience may evolve. And your brand can evolve right along with it.

So instead of putting pressure on yourself to choose the perfect colors forever, let's focus on creating a brand color palette that fits the business you're building right now.

In this guide, I'll walk you through how to choose your brand colors, what different colors can communicate, and a few easy ways to find brand color palette inspiration when you have no idea where to start.

Common Brand Color Mistakes to Avoid

Choosing your brand colors doesn't have to be complicated, but there are a few common mistakes that can make your brand feel inconsistent or confusing. Before you finalize your color palette, make sure you're not falling into one of these traps.

1. Choosing Colors Just Because They're Trendy

Trendy colors come and go, but your brand should feel timeless. Instead of choosing colors because they're popular right now, choose colors that reflect your brand personality and the experience you want customers to have.

2. Using Too Many Colors

A rainbow of colors can make your brand feel cluttered and unprofessional. Stick to a simple palette of 3–5 colors that work well together and use them consistently across your website, social media, and marketing materials.

3. Forgetting About Readability

A beautiful color palette won't help if people can't read your content. Make sure there's enough contrast between your text and background colors so your website, graphics, and social posts are easy to read on both desktop and mobile devices.

4. Copying Another Brand

It's perfectly fine to gather inspiration from brands you admire, but avoid copying their exact color palette. Your brand should have its own unique look that helps you stand out and become recognizable.

5. Never Testing Your Colors

Before committing to your palette, use it in real-life situations. Create a few Instagram graphics, update a website section, or design a Pinterest pin. Seeing your colors in action will help you decide if they truly represent your brand.

Final Tip

Remember, your brand colors don't have to be perfect from day one. The goal isn't finding the "perfect" shade—it's creating a color palette that feels like your business and using it consistently everywhere your audience sees your brand.

How to Choose Brand Colors for Your Small Business

Choosing your brand colors can feel simple at first… until you're staring at dozens of palettes wondering which one actually fits your business.

Your brand colors help shape the overall look and feeling of your business. They can make your brand feel bold, calm, playful, polished, warm, creative, or something completely different.

But you don’t need to find the perfect palette overnight.

Instead, walk through these steps and build a color palette that makes sense for the business you’re creating right now.

Step 1: Get Clear on Your Brand First

Before choosing colors, start with the foundation of your brand.

Your colors should support the personality and feeling of your business—not determine it for you.

Ask yourself:

What does your brand stand for?

Think about your values.

Maybe your brand represents:

Creativity
Confidence
Simplicity
Inclusivity
Growth
Authenticity
Fun

Choose around 3–5 words that describe what you want your business to represent.

How do you want your audience to feel?

When someone lands on your website or sees your content, how should they feel?

Inspired?
Calm?
Confident?
Excited?
Supported?
Motivated?

Choose another 3–5 words.

What is your brand personality?

Imagine your brand as a person.

Is she:

Bold and colorful?
Soft and sophisticated?
Fun and playful?
Minimal and professional?
Warm and approachable?

These answers will give you direction when you start looking at colors.

Step 2: Understand What Different Colors Can Communicate

Now that you know how you want your brand to feel, you can start thinking about which colors support that feeling.

Color psychology can be helpful here, but treat it as inspiration and not a rulebook.

Color can influence the overall feeling and personality of your brand.

Here's a simple place to start:

Yellow
Often associated with optimism, happiness, warmth, and energy. Yellow can be a great accent color when you want certain elements of your brand to stand out.
Orange
Can feel friendly, energetic, creative, and playful. It's a bold choice for brands that want to feel approachable and full of personality.
Red
Often communicates energy, passion, confidence, and excitement. Because it naturally grabs attention, red can work well when you want to create a bold visual presence.
Pink
Can feel playful, warm, feminine, energetic, or sophisticated depending on the shade. A soft blush creates a completely different mood than a bright hot pink.
Purple
Often associated with creativity, imagination, luxury, and individuality. Purple can range from soft and calming to rich and dramatic depending on the shade.
Blue
Often communicates trust, calm, reliability, and professionalism. Lighter blues can feel peaceful and approachable, while deeper blues can feel established and confident.
Green
Frequently associated with growth, nature, balance, wellness, and renewal. It's especially popular with brands centered around health, lifestyle, sustainability, and personal growth.
Brown
Can feel warm, grounded, natural, and dependable. It works beautifully with earthy, organic, or cozy brand aesthetics.
Black
Can communicate confidence, sophistication, luxury, simplicity, or boldness. It's also a versatile neutral that can help brighter colors stand out.
White
Often creates a feeling of simplicity, cleanliness, openness, and calm. White space can also give your brand room to breathe visually.
Gray
Can feel modern, neutral, polished, and professional. It's a useful supporting color when you want your primary brand colors to take center stage.

At this point, you don’t have to choose exact hex codes.

Just start identifying 2–3 color families that match the feeling you're trying to create.

Step 3: Gather Brand Color Inspiration

Now we get to the fun part.

Before building your final palette, collect inspiration.

There are three easy ways to do this.

Option 1: Look at brands you love

Pay attention to businesses that immediately catch your eye.

Ask yourself:

What colors do they use?

How do those colors make the brand feel?

Are you repeatedly drawn to bright colors? Warm neutrals? Soft pastels? Bold contrast?

You’re not copying the brand.

You’re looking for patterns in what you naturally like.

Option 2: Create a brand mood board

Create a Pinterest board or Canva mood board and collect:

Photos
Colors
Textures
Fonts
Interiors
Fashion
Packaging
Graphics

Don’t overthink it.

After you’ve collected enough inspiration, step back and look for repeated colors.

Those repeating shades are often a great clue to the direction your palette should take.

Option 3: Pull colors from a photo

Find one image that captures the overall feeling you want your brand to have.

Then use a color palette tool like Adobe Color to pull colors directly from the image.

This can be one of the easiest ways to create a palette that already feels visually cohesive.

Step 4: Build Your Brand Color Palette

Once you’ve collected inspiration, narrow everything down into an actual palette.

You do not need a million colors.

Start with:

1 Primary Color

The color most associated with your brand.

1–2 Supporting Colors

These complement your primary color and give you variety.

1 Accent Color

Use this for buttons, calls to action, highlights, and important details.

1 Dark Neutral

Black, charcoal, deep brown, or another dark shade for text and contrast.

1 Light Neutral

White, cream, beige, or light gray to balance the palette.

A simple palette might look like:

Primary + Supporting + Accent + Dark Neutral + Light Neutral

That gives you enough flexibility to design without choosing random new colors every time you open Canva.

Step 5: Check That Your Colors Work Together

Before officially committing to the palette, test it.

Create a few sample designs and see how the colors behave together.

Try:

An Instagram graphic
A Pinterest pin
A website button
A blog graphic
A freebie cover
A text-based graphic

Then ask:

Is the text easy to read?
Is there enough contrast?
Can I use these colors in different combinations?
Does the palette still feel like my brand when I actually design with it?

And my favorite question:

Would I enjoy creating content with these colors over and over again?

Because a pretty palette isn't useful if it’s hard to work with.

Step 6: Create Simple Brand Color Rules

Once you've chosen your palette, decide how you're going to use it.

For example:

Primary color: main graphics and brand elements
Accent color: buttons and important details
Dark neutral: body text
Light neutral: backgrounds
Supporting colors: variety throughout your content

You don’t need strict corporate brand guidelines.

You just need enough consistency that every graphic doesn’t start with:

"Hmm… what color should I use today?" 😂

Save your final hex codes somewhere easy to find like on your Canva Brand Kit, a brand board, or a simple brand guide.

Step 7: Start Using Your Brand Colors Consistently

Now use the palette across your:

Website
Social media graphics
Pinterest pins
Emails
Freebies
Templates
Product graphics
Marketing materials

Your content doesn't need to look identical.

It should simply feel like it belongs to the same brand.

And remember: consistency takes time.

The more often people see the same colors, photography style, fonts, and visual elements from you, the easier it becomes to recognize your content.

Quick Recap: How to Choose Your Brand Colors

When you're ready to create your brand color palette:

Step 1: Define your brand values, personality, and desired feeling.

Step 2: Learn what different colors can communicate.

Step 3: Gather inspiration from brands, mood boards, and photos.

Step 4: Build a simple palette.

Step 5: Test your colors in real designs.

Step 6: Decide how each color will be used.

Step 7: Use your palette consistently.

And please don't let choosing the “perfect” palette keep you stuck.

Your brand can evolve.

Choose colors that work for the business you're building right now, start using them, and refine them as you grow.

Ready to Put Your Brand Colors to Work?

Your brand colors don't have to be perfect from day one. The goal is to choose colors that represent your business, attract your ideal audience, and stay consistent across everything you create.

Remember, consistency builds recognition far more than chasing trends. Once you've chosen your palette, the next step is creating content that actually feels cohesive with your new brand.

Inside the She Bold Stock Vault, you'll find stock photos, stock videos, Canva templates, and content resources designed to help you create polished, on-brand content without starting from scratch every week.

EXPLORE THE VAULT

How to Choose Colors for your Brand