I love color. Really.

Beige is boring.

The only white walls in my house are inside closets. Everything else has color. Blues, greens, oranges, purples… I live in a rainbow.

When it comes to marketing your business services and products, color helps to convey emotion. Blues give a different feeling than pinks. Reds and oranges are loud and bold, while greys and greens are softer.

Loren likes to tell me that there are only 6 colors; red, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple. Then add in white/grey/black and brown and you have a complete box of crayons. But I think there are so many more colors to choose from. What about burgundy? Or teal? Or burnt sienna?

How in-depth is your color vocabulary?

No matter what colors you use in your marketing, you need to know a little about the basics of using colors online versus in print. 

Flashback to seventh grade science: remember how we were shown that different colors of light mixed together equals white? Or that mixing all of the paints creates a grey/brown/muddy mixture? Now that knowledge comes in handy.

Here’s your intro to color terminology.

Colors

CMYK - PMS - RGB - HEX

All the colors of the rainbow can be represented in CMYK, PMS, RGB, and HEX codes. Depending on where you see the color (online or offline), it will be defined in a different way. CMYK and PMS colors are used in the printing process, and RGB and HEX colors are used online.

CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow Black)

CMYK color definitions are used in the printing industry, as most colors can be created using a mix of these 4 inks. That’s why full color printing is also called 4-color printing. A printer that uses CMYK colors makes individual tiny dots of color.

PMS (also called Pantone® colors)

PMS colors are patented standardized color inks made by the Pantone company. Each color is sold in a can, or the formulation is mixed on site. It is one solid color. Pantone colors are defined by businesses who have designated the specific colors used in their brand. Many designers will have a Pantone color swatch book close by to look at colors rather than using computer generated colors.

I can remember watching the press man looking up specific colors to calculate how much of each ink to mix together.

RGB (Red Green Blue)

RGB is a color definition used in the online space. Red, green and blue light is used in different combinations to create colors on our screens, which are lighted. Each color is represented by a number from 0 to 255.

HEX Codes

HEX codes are used online. Usually, they are RGB colors represented by a 6-digit mix of numbers and letters, with the first two digits referring to red, the second two to green, the last two to blue. Hex codes start with a a hashtag/number sign and go from #FFFFFF (white RGB: 255, 255, 255) to #000000 (black RGB: 0, 0, 0).

Online or off, color is a part of our world. Graphic design and marketing uses colors not just because “they look good,” but also because of the psychological effects they have. I can help you choose colors based on the purpose of your business - in your logo designs and marketing projects.

What color questions can I answer for you?