So you spent hours looking at colour wheels, waxing philosophic over the meaning of warm reds and cooler blues before finally landing on the holy grail: a set of two, three, or maybe even four brand colours that exactly represent what your business does or values. You share the news with your friends and family. Someone points out, “doesn’t X company use those same colours?”. And just like that, you’re back to the drawing board asking yourself, “does it really matter if my colours are the same as this other brand?”.
The answer is: no, it doesn’t matter. Well, maybe it doesn’t matter. Ultimately, it depends if these colours might confuse prospects and customers or distract from your brand's offerings by drawing comparisons. Before you restart your colour search, first consider these questions:
How unique are the brand colours?
If your chosen colours are unique – a truly uncommon colour combination – it could actually increase the likelihood for confusion between your brand and the other brand. Because of its rarity in the wild, the colour scheme may have a very strong association with the other brand. However, whether or not that is the case comes down to the answer of this next question….
How well known is the ‘other brand’ to my audience?
Since we’re worried about causing confusion, it’s important to consider your target market’s awareness of the other brand. If the other brand is relatively small, offers products or services in an unrelated industry or context, or even operating in a significantly different geographic area, it’s quite possible your potential and existing customers will not draw comparisons between the two brands. They may not even know it exists because it just isn’t relevant to them.
How will I use the colours?
Let’s say the offending colour scheme is three colours. Closely observe how the other brand treats the relationships between these colours and where and when they use them. Do they use one colour more than another, do they pair two colours together more frequently than the third, etc. You can uniquely blend, through combinations, hierarchy and proportions, the same colour scheme to create a distinctive look that feels fresh to the eye.
How different is the rest of my brand?
It’s easy to get hung up on colours when creating a brand – they convey a great deal, after all – but there’s so much more to the design of a brand. The harmony between the typography you use, your logo, voice, and the overall design style is what creates a unique presentation of your business. Compare all the elements of your brand with the other brand before jumping ship on your colour scheme. If you haven’t already, create some mock-ups of a website, a presentation deck, sales collateral, or other marketing materials to get a sense of how you can engineer your brand differently while remaining true to the original reasons you chose the colour scheme.
If after asking yourselves these and other questions, you’ve concluded you need to find a new colour scheme, well, take heart. If it weren’t for that friend who made this early comparison, you might have a costly rebrand on your hands in the not too distant future.
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