How To Choose The Right Colors For Your Personal Brand

By Rachelle Duran

​With the rise of social media and the online world of the Internet, curating your personal brand is more important than ever. Having a well-rounded online presence can make or break your application when applying for jobs in any industry. When looking specifically at the public relations world and its surrounding industries, your personal brand is as important as your writing style or your work experience. 

Before potential employers click onto the content present on your portfolio website or your social media, they will first see the colors associated with your personal brand. This includes the color of your logo, the colors present in the layout of your website and any accent colors you may have on your social media accounts. In this post, we’ll explain how to choose the right colors for your personal brand, why colors are important for portraying your aesthetic and how showing your creative side can set a tone for your brand.

1. Deciding Your Personal Aesthetic 
When deciding what colors to use, you first have to decide what your personal aesthetic is. Are your tastes more vintage or modern? Are you artsy or clean cut? Do you prefer bright colors or muted ones? Asking yourself these questions and more to figure out which color palette is the best for your personal brand is important. Matching your interests with colors that match your personality will make your layouts more personable and aesthetically pleasing. You are setting the tone for your personal brand with the colors you choose to represent it. 

2. Deciding Your Professional Aesthetic 
Once you have decided what your personal aesthetic is, now think about what your professional aesthetic is. What industries are you hoping to work for? Travel or beauty? Entertainment or fashion? Think about the industry you want to get into and use inspiration from your favorite brands. Having a professional website does not mean having a dull and colorless site. You can be professional while also showing your creative side. 

3. Understanding Color Psychology
Color psychology is the study of colors in relation to human behavior. Different colors can affect our attitudes, feelings, behavior and other aspects of our daily lives. Colors invoke certain meanings and emotions when we look at them. These meanings can change depending on your cultural perspective, but usually, most colors mean the same thing universally.
Using color as a communication tool can change the tone of your brand and how others view it. By using cool colors such as blues, greens, and purples, you set a soothing atmosphere around your brand. These colors remind people of fresh air and nature and cause them to be more relaxed. By using warmer colors such as red, orange, and yellow, you are portraying strength and optimism. These colors remind people of fire and light, causing you to appear more confident and intelligent. Darker colors such as brown, black, and gray will make your brand appear more sophisticated and formal. 

4. Use A Color Palette Generator 
A great place to test out different color combinations is Canva’s Color Palette Generator. With this free tool, you are able to create a color palette based off of any photo you upload. Like the colors of a sunset photo you took? Upload it onto the generator and have your own sunset color palette in a matter of seconds. Canva even provides the color codes so that you always have the exact shade across all platforms. 
They also have a variety of pre-made color combinations you can look through for inspiration. From shades of neon to more muted color palettes, Canva’s generator has the perfect combinations for any of your color needs. 

5. Test Out Your New Color Palette
There’s a difference between seeing your color palette laid out versus it actually being applied to a website or on social media. Take the time to test your new color palette by creating a new logo with them, changing the color settings on your website, creating new headers for your social media profiles and anything else needed to cement your personal brand. Try it out on website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, Weebly or any other. Seeing the color combinations in action will help you see if you are satisfied or if a color needs to be changed. 
Nothing is permanent. You may decide in a week or month or year that you no longer like the look of your website and social media. That’s the fun in growing and evolving. Continue testing out your color combinations until you are completely pleased and positive that those colors represent you. 

We unconsciously judge everything we see. Unflattering color combinations can be a turn off for viewers and cause them to leave your site. Make yourself stand out the right way by choosing the right colors to represent your personal brand. Asking yourself who you are by connecting your interests with your personality will make your website and social media layouts more personable. As you grow, so will your tastes and interests. Show off your creativity by having fun with different color combinations that represent you.