Blue

This is an ode to blue.

It must be the newest fashionable colour, especially that bright greeny/blue teal colour I have been seeing popping up everywhere (luuuve it, it makes me happy inside). To be honest every new client I have had recently wants work done in blue; various shades of blue whether it tints towards grey, purple or green, but blue none the less. My portfolio is almost completely the same single colour - thanks a lot guys; you make me look like I am the one with the obsession!

You know why I think people like the colour blue? Apart from it being an all-round stable colour let’s say the “golden retriever of colours” - It’s safe. You can’t go wrong with having a blue logo, right? 

Business owners (in New Zealand) I think don’t like to branch out too much, especially with new company branding – I don’t blame you, it’s your baby! They are worried if they pick another colour it could symbolise something un-known to them or they might miss a chunk of the market who don’t relate to that colour. When you first start out branding, you might not even know exactly who your market could be (who would have thought blue powerade would end up being the drink of choice for hung-over youth, I would have thought athletes were their target.. or maybe it’s a steady favourite because it’s blue… sigh) so you want to target everyone and I think that is what makes blue so attractive - it doesn’t hold any particular strong connotation to it so you are keeping yourself open to everyone. Nice. And. Safe.

Pink is flamboyant, purple is too, red could be too aggressive, orange and yellow are so playful, white doesn’t show up enough, black is so in fashion it is out of fashion, green… well maybe if I make it an aqua or teal shade of green it could be ok… wait. That’s blue in disguise!

I don’t have a problem with blue, I guess this is sounding like more of a blue bashing than an ode, I just think to get noticed sometimes you do have to take that chance; that maybe you need a different colour to stand out from the crowd. Best idea I can think of is look at everyone else in your industry, what colour are they using? Blue? Well it works for them of course it would work for you… That may be true as long as you have another point of difference, but if you don’t or you can’t show people until you get their attention anyway you might want to differentiate yourself immediately. Otherwise your branding could just end up reinforcing theirs and they have already got that market. Think about it.

Happy colour picking!