Brand color ideas: 30 palettes for new brands, with codes

Good brand color ideas start with jobs, not favourites. Pick a ground colour that most of your designs sit on, a main colour that says what kind of business you are, a supporting tone for depth, a neutral for text and one accent that people remember you by. Below are 30 palettes built that way, six by mood with swatches and 24 by industry with codes, plus a quick method for testing whichever one you choose.

How a brand colour palette is built

Most failed palettes are five colours of equal weight: nothing leads, so nothing is recognisable. A palette works when each colour has a share of the space: the ground covers most of it, the main colour a good part, and the accent only a sliver. The 60 30 10 rule is a useful starting ratio, even if you bend it later.

Brand colour palettes by mood

Start here if you know how you want people to feel. Colour associations are cultural rather than universal, as colour psychology explains.

Brand color ideas by industry

Each industry palette lists four codes, usually from darkest to lightest, and the last column names the colour doing the accent's job. Conventions exist for a reason: a dentist in teal and a bakery in warm browns are understood at a glance. Meet the convention with your main colour and break it gently with your accent.

How to make a palette feel like your brand

What turns a listed palette into an identity is one decision nobody else in your street has made, usually the accent: a law firm in leather brown, a gym in acid yellow. Change the accent first and keep the ground and text colour, so you gain a look without losing readability.

A palette blended into a soft gradient gives you a background that is unmistakably yours, as long as the colours are related.

Test your brand colours before you commit

1. 1

   Make three real designs

   A square post, a 1080×1920 story and a 1500×500 header, with real words and your logo.

2. 2

   Check text contrast

   Your neutral on your ground should pass WCAG AA. Colour contrast and accessibility shows how to measure it.

3. 3

   Look at it small

   Shrink the post to thumbnail size. If you can still tell it is yours, the palette is doing its job.

4. 4

   Try it next to competitors

   Put your post beside three local rivals. If yours blends in, change the accent, not the whole palette.

5. 5

   Write the codes down

   Record every hex code and its role in one place.

If you want help choosing, how to choose brand colours walks through the decision from scratch, and logo colour combinations narrows it down to the two or three colours your mark itself should use.

Turning brand colours into a look

Five hex codes can be copied by anyone. In Gradiently, a Mark carries a palette as a living background with its own light, grain and motion, and no two Marks look alike. Search the Market with colour words like "deep teal" to find one close to your palette, design with it for free, and claim it so only you can export with it. Your brand kit holds the exact codes for text and accents.