channel ORANGE - On Brand & Color

Orange is our color. It wasn’t hard for our team to agree on that.

We chose the color for many reasons, the biggest reason being that Syracuse, NY is where we are headquartered. Syracuse University is what our city is most known for. The students and athletes at SU are “Orangemen.” SU’s logo is also, naturally, orange. We liked the fact that, since we work with international companies, our brand color would be associated with where our business is headquartered.

Psychologists will tell you that orange is a “…creative and cheerful color that evokes a friendly and adventurous feeling.” (Source: Adobe)

We like this association. However, it was not the primary reason we chose the color for our brand. Our main reason was because of Syracuse University. And second to that, we simply liked orange because it was different. 90 of the top 100 brands in the world use only 3 colors: blue, red and greyscale (shades of black). We like the fact that we are a creative company and that we have the liberty to make a statement with orange.

Other companies have to play it much more safely.

For example, take three of the top makeup brands in the world: Estee Lauder, Chanel, and MAC – they all have corporate logos that are black. Does the absence of color make a classy statement for well-known makeup companies? Or are the companies themselves so large that they don’t need color to make a statement?

It is interesting that black is equal to both red and blue as the primary logo color for the top brands in the world.

Take Nike and Apple for example.

When you think of their main logos, you only think of them in black. Although, both companies have experimented with different color variations of their logo – especially for specific product launches or campaigns.

On the other hand, two of the largest companies in the world – Walmart and Amazon – use yellow and orange, respectively, as their brand colors. Is it a coincidence that both these companies are in mass retail and they both use uncommon colors?

The simple answer to all of these questions is that there is no formula to determine what color fits with your brand.

As another example take the Gatorade Logo:

Psychologists say that green is supposed to evoke calmness in the viewer. Personally, being calm is the last thing I think of when I see the Gatorade logo. I think of athletics. And intense workouts.

Sometimes it is an easy decision, as it was with us, Brand Relative, and choosing the color orange. Other times it is more difficult to fit colors with a brand. In this case you should hire us to design your logo for you! The color palette will translate into your website and any other marketing materials you may need.

What message do you want to send to your clients?