Color Psychology and 60-30-10 Rule in Graphic Design
Do you know that almost 93% of customers make purchase decisions based on color and visual appearance? This is the reason why choosing right colors for your logo, brand, and product packaging is so important. When you choose colors to represent your business and then use them consistently over time, your brand will become associated with those colors, because the color is one of the most-remembered elements of your brand and can make a big impact on how it is perceived.
60-30-10 Rule in Graphic Design
A simple way to create your brand’s color scheme is 60-30-10 rule. According to this rule, you need to choose three different colors and use them in proportions of 60%, 30%, and 10%.
In this case, your 60% is the main color for your brand, for example, the color you use for advertisement backgrounds.
Your 30% is the secondary color or your logo main color.
And your 10% is your accent color that you use either in your logo or for other accents.
The main idea of this and actually ALL color schemes is that you use the colors in different amounts. Good examples of this rule in branding are McDonald’s, DHL, and Walmart.
However, if you don’t want to follow the 60-30-10 rule described above, it is usually better to use one or two colors than several many colors.
If you use too many colors, you are conveying too many feelings or messages at once, which can be confusing for your customers.
In general, multiple colored logos are used for brands that offer a wide range of products and services or represent diversity and inclusion, for example, Google, Windows, Olympic Games or eBay. Unless your brand has similar traits, be careful with using multiple colors for your logo.
If you want to learn about other interesting graphic design principles, check out my book “Design Book for Non-Designers: Guidelines for Small Business Owners, Bloggers, and Marketers”.
Actually, there are many types of research made in order to find out, what impact colors make to our life and how they can influence consumer’s decisions on which product to buy or service to use. Look at the infographic below and you will get some interesting insights.
