Time to "Get Over" the Rainbow (in your logo, that is)

Ah, rainbows. They're beautiful things, stretching across the sky, like Mother Nature apologizing for wet, nasty weather. It's no wonder that so many people love them.

But, love can quickly turn to hate if you use a many-colored palette in your business brand.

Rainbows belong in the sky—far away from your small business

Rainbows are wonderful, but if you try to bring that natural beauty into your logo with tons of color, you'll be setting yourself up for unnatural disasters.

Here are just a few of the problems that await you:

Rainbows confuse the message that your color palette is trying to communicate
The job of your logo's color palette is to communicate some of the elements of your brand's personality. Colors each have a psychological meaning—for example, green for health, blue for trust and comfort, orange for speed and energy. The colors in your logo should capitalize on these meanings and help tell your prospects the story of your business.
If you use a whole rainbow of colors in your logo, then any potential meaning gets lost in the confusion. Your logo will communicate more clearly if you concentrate on just a few colors—2 or 3 at most—and if you make sure to choose those colors for their psychological factors.
Rainbows lack sophistication
Many small businesses are creating their brands to make themselves look "like a real business" and to demonstrate their expertise. Considering a rainbow color palette for your logo just sabotages those goals.
Why? Well, rainbow colors are often associated with children's products or fun, frivolous companies—like party supply stores. Unless you're going for an unsophisticated look in your materials as a part of your brand definition, leave the rainbows out.
Rainbows are pretty
What seems to be an argument in favor of rainbows is actually one of the biggest arguments against them. Your business brand should be much more than pretty—it should be meaningful, memorable and credible.
Using a rainbow takes the focus off of communicating these desirable attributes and instead emphasizes the color palette itself. Basically, you're distracting your customer with pretty colors.
Printing becomes tricky
Even though good quality, full-color digital printing is readily available for some marketing materials, that isn't the case for everything.
You can print your business cards, brochures and flyers digitally and get great results with multiple colors for very little money. But, digitally printing letterhead and envelopes usually doesn't produce good quality materials. Digital printers often use flimsy paper. As being able to choose paper colors other than dull white, fuggadaboutit.
Also, some marketing pieces just can't be printed digitally—such as promotional items, which are charged on a per-color basis. Choosing to print a wide range of colors on these materials can make them cost far too much to produce.

So, let the rainbows stay in the sky. Keep them off your company's logo, and it will be that much stronger.

About the Author

Erin Ferree is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Through her customized marketing and brand identity packages, Erin helps her clients discover their brand differentiators, then designs logos, business cards, and other marketing materials and websites to reflect that differentiation, as well as to increase credibility and memorability. As the owner of elf design, Erin is passionate about helping small business owners stand out in front of their competition and attract more clients. Hundreds of small business owners across the US and Canada have relied on Erin to create content and visuals that support their brands.

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