Creative Names for Every Color

Branding & Design

Nov 1

As a graphic designer, I spend a lot of time in the world of color. Sometimes I joke that my job is just picking out colors all day. But I think we know, there’s a LOT more to it than that. Color can be used in very strategic ways to communicate a brand’s ideals, style, and mood.

Color is also one of the primary ways your brand can establish recognition.

I include a custom color palette with every branding client I work with. One of the ways I tailor this to the specific client is to give each color a custom name. This might just seem like a fun detail, but it also has practical applications.

01. It can reinforce your brand tone.

Say you have a natural, organic product. You could choose the colors:

Golden yellow
Muted green
Muted Orange
Dark Green

OR you could choose the colors:

Honeycomb
Sage
Fawn
Moss

Which one is more descriptive? Which feels like it belongs with an organic product? When you’re developing the building blocks for your brand, take every opportunity to reinforce your brand tone and ideals.

02. it makes communication easier among your team & vendors.

This is especially helpful when you have two or more colors in a similar color palette. In the example above, you have a “muted” green and a “dark” green. But say you also have a “medium” green. When someone on your team is referencing one of your colors there’s no reason not to make this as clear as possible.

Being about to say you want to use Moss as the background and Fawn for the font on a social post eliminates the potential for mistakes.

Similarly, say you are getting branded shirts printed and hats embroidered. Telling your printer you want white shirts with your Honeycomb logo and hats embroidered with Sage thread will make instructions 100% clear.

When you are putting the finishing touches on a project and your creative juices are starting to run dry, thinking of creative names can feel like an extra step you don’t want to take the time for - but the attention to detail is worth it. It shows that you take pride in the work you are delivering and it makes it more user-friendly in the long run.

I’m taking some of the guesswork out and leaving a library of creative color names for you here!