Choosing palettes for new projects is a whole… well, project.

Choosing a palette for the project you’ve got coming up takes time and energy. And it should! Choosing the colours you’re going to use is all about feelings – specifically, the feelings you want your people to have when they’re engaging with your work. It’s not, however, about what you like. Or… not TOTALLY about what you like. Because what you’re drawn to matters, especially if you’re your own ideal client. 

But outside of that, this choice is about colour psychology, what makes sense, and what communicates well with your audience. 

Blue palettes do tons of work!

If you’re leaning toward blues for your upcoming project, whether it’s a painting, or a brand design – there are tons of reasons to go that direction! Blue is calming. It’s a loyalty and expertise colour – which means it works particularly well for those in health care industries, or wellness areas. 

Blue Colour Palettes can feel natural

Even though blue isn’t necessarily an earthy tone, like neutral palettes are, it’s still natural! Despite there being very little blue in nature when it comes to flowers and plants, there is so much blue out there in the wild wild world. The sky, for one, obviously. And the sea – which makes blue a brilliant choice for many beachy brands, or brands with sea conservation at the heart of their values. 

Blue hues are serene

Blue colour palettes, partially because of their association with subtle blues from nature, have a serene edge to them, when used in muted shades and tones. So if you’re aiming for your audience to feel calm and peaceful when they encounter your content, then blues are a great choice! 

Every colour palette is all about balance

I talk about balance a lot when it comes to colour palettes, but there’s a good reason for that! Simply deciding that you want blue for your palette, and that it will automatically be calming because it’s blue… well that’s not really enough. Blue can also be incredibly energetic, if vibrant, saturated tones are used! So balancing the specific hues you’re selecting with the emotions you want to evoke is a super important part of creating a palette that will communicate your goals. 

Want to start with your own image?

These palettes make great starting points, but if you have a specific image or mood board you want to start with, you can totally do that instead! Grab your image or images, and then, get that colour picker going!! If you’re not a Canva user, or an Adobe guru, then sites like Coolers.co can make your process super simple. Just pop your image in, and it’ll generate palettes based on it for you to tweak and choose from! Adobe has a similar free tool here, if you’re more of an Adobe human.

So I have my palette – Now What?

Start using it consistently! Success after rebranding (or branding for the first time) comes down largely to consistency. You want to make sure that once you’ve chosen your colour palette, you use it across all of your social media, as well as your entire online presence. Inject it into any branding images that you take for your company, including the wardrobe in your headshots. Make sure that the vibe created in your content aligns with the mood created by the palette!

If your blue palette is light, and airy, and uplifting, keep things light, and airy, and uplifting. If the blue colour palette you’re using is deep, and moody, and ethereal… same deal. Stick within the mood that is curated by the colours you’ve selected.

Trying to decide whether neutral palettes would work for your brand?

If you’re stuck on whether a blue palette might work for your branding, or your upcoming project, I’d love to have a chat! We can talk about whether blues are actually the way to go, or whether the emotions you’re looking to instill in your audience would be better communicated with a different palette base entirely!

Happy designing!

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