One of the surprising questions we have been asked here at E-Man Ink is “what are lucky colors for business logos?” At first glance, this seems like a super out there question. However, it is understandable why people are asking this. In this blog post, we are going to break down colors in logos and how to decide on the best color for your business logo – luck included.
Table of Contents
Standard Recommended Colors
The most popular color for logos is blue, followed by red, black, grey, and silver. Blue is indicative of trust and professionalism, while red is great at capturing the attention of others. Red is actually one of the most visible colors on the entire color spectrum.
Follow The K.I.S.S. Formula
Remember to follow the golden rule: Keep It Stupidly Simple. We typically recommend using 2-3 colors tops in your logo. Too many colors can be distracting and you don’t want your logo to be too complicated.
Most ironic logos have only a few colors. Think of brands you know and Google their logo.
Colors Considered Lucky
Interestingly enough, out of the top 10 companies that reported the highest revenue year as of the time of writing this article – the largest common color among their logos was red. Regardless of whether you would consider this luck or statistics, the fact remains: these companies made major profit. Why not just model what is proven to work…?
Besides just looking at numbers, common colors associated with luck are red, yellow, and green in the Chinese Zodiac. Quite interesting, considering that red was in the majority of logos listed in the companies that produced the most revenue. Red is the most powerful color in Indian culture and stands for wealth, power, love, and purity.
Good Color Combinations
Typical logo color combinations include blue and white, red and black, black and white, and yellow/orange and black. The key to successful color combinations is to use complementary colors, in other words colors that look good together.
We have seen plenty of logos that are hard to read because of poor color choices. Black text on a blue background is far worse than white text on a blue background, for example.
What Do You Want Your Logo To Convey…?
Make sure people can understand what you do by glancing at your logo. This is key to a successful logo design that accomplishes what you want. For example, if you are a band try to include music notes in your logo. If you do landscaping, having a lawn mower or grass in your logo makes perfect sense.
Remember: Your Branding Should Match
If you already use an existing color scheme on your flyers, business cards, or other marketing materials then it may be a good idea to run with the colors you already have. Your logo should be the same everywhere and look decent when placed with all of your marketing materials. Try to think of any existing marketing you have in place and brainstorm if your logo would fit with it.
We have had clients here at E-Man Ink that have brought in vehicles they wish to be decaled, only for their logo to look very bad against the body color. If you plan on having business cars or trucks, it is important to take the color of those vehicles into consideration when deciding on the color scheme for your logo.
A Word On Luck Versus Statistics
Although it may seem like a good feeling in your gut to try and choose colors for your logo that are considered “lucky”, it’s important to keep statistics and data in mind. If something is proven to work, why try to reinvent the wheel…? At the end of the day, great marketing will make a difference regardless of the color of your logo. As long as your logo is memorable, easily recognizable, and follows common marketing/design principles, you are good to go.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, there are colors that are considered “lucky” by most cultures. It is up to you to decide what you want to base your color decisions on. We strongly suggest that you take both data/statistics and lucky colors into consideration when deciding what colors you want your logo to be. At E-Man Ink, we design logos that achieve your business goals. Stop in today or give us a call at: (716) 297-5073.
Cindy Wills
Cindy is our head graphic designer here at E-Man Ink. She is passionate about design. Cindy graduated from University of Buffalo with a degree in Communication Design. Her multi-disciplinary work includes typography, illustration, photography, accessory graphics and design for arts.
Leave A Comment