[This is from my newsletter, Creative Intelligence. Sign up here to get future issues emailed to you as soon as they come out.]
This month’s issue comes from questions I got from a reader. She asked:
“I would love to hear what you think about how brands with a very specific color palette can expand in a natural way to other shades and tones without losing their core color values and ensuring their color story remains cohesive.
And what do you think about segmenting your line by color? So active pieces have a specific palette, lifestyle pieces have a different palette, etc. I'm super interested in your process and how you make a palette come to life for a brand!”
Great questions! Here are my answers, by topic:
Expanding a Color Palette Naturally
The first step is to understand what’s motivating the brand to expand their color palette, and to make sure this motivation is aligned with the brand’s values and purpose.
A color palette is designed to achieve a brand’s goals. It does this by each color performing certain job(s) that support those goals.
Determine what jobs the brand’s current palette is not accomplishing. Are some customers not able to find a color choice they love? Is the current palette starting to feel stale or too limiting? Are the brand’s products being used in more diverse environments, for different purposes, and/or by a broader range of people than originally designed for? What else?
These answers will inform what color families, tones, and shades would be most ideal for the brand to expand into.
Before new colors are added, identify the existing colors that will remain in the palette. These colors will be ones that are heavily associated with the brand’s values and identity. They are strong sellers and likely to remain so in the future. They are colors that work well together, that have an energy that reflects the brand’s roots. Carry these colors forward into the more expansive palette; they will become its foundation.
Drop any other colors that are not reflective of the direction the brand is going, are duplicitous, or are no longer (or not likely to continue) performing well.
Now expand the palette by bringing in new colors. Each new color should be chosen to accomplish at least one of the specific jobs that you identified at the beginning of this process and that the carryover colors are not already satisfying.
Make sure that each new color merchandises with the carryover colors and with each other. This part is critical! It’s what makes the palette expansion feel and appear natural and intriguing - all the colors look good together. The palette must look cohesive and beautiful in its entirety, and each color must be unique and tailored to a particular purpose.
Base the amount of palette expansion on the comfort of both the brand and its community. For some brands, this will be small; for others, it will be larger. As a rule of thumb, keep it between 10%-50%. Anything less is not meaningful enough; anything more is too disruptive. Honestly, right in the middle of that range is the sweet spot for most.
color inspo
Segmenting a Line by Color
Now, for the final question - "What do you think about segmenting your line by color? So active pieces have a specific palette, lifestyle pieces have a different palette, etc."
I am a big fan of segmenting a line by color. Why? Because often, different categories in a line have products with different lifespans, price-points, purposes, and audiences. Color is affected by all of those variables. So, color needs to be used slightly differently in each category.
I often design one main color palette for a brand, and then create category-specific sub-palettes from it. This ensures that the brand has a unified, recognizable color identity and that each individual category has colorways that are sellable and enticing.
The key is making sure that all of the sub-palettes merchandise together.
Wherever possible, share colors across categories. This will likely be neutrals and core colors, probably some directional and seasonal colors as well. By doing this, you establish common color threads throughout the line.
Then, where the category-specific colors deviate from each other, make sure that they still all look good together. For example, the active segment might include more saturated or bolder colors, than the lifestyle segment, but a red in active should complement a soft pink in lifestyle.
Using color this way makes sure that each category alone is powerful, and that together, the line is compelling and fluid.
