Choosing brand colours without hiring a designer
You don't need twelve colours. You need about five, and a reason for each.
Every few weeks someone shows me a site with seven bright colours fighting each other. Usually the owner picked each one because they liked it. Fair enough, but liking a colour isn't the same as it doing a job.
Start with what each colour is for
- one main colour for buttons and links
- one accent for small highlights
- a couple of greys for text and borders
- a background
That's it for most small sites. Red for errors and green for success, if you need forms.
Check contrast early
This is the boring bit people skip. Light grey text on white looks elegant in a mockup and unreadable on a cheap phone in the sun. Aim for WCAG AA at least. There are free checkers online; takes thirty seconds.
Steal the mood, not the palette
Look at brands your customers already trust. Don't copy the hex codes, but notice: is it calm? loud? warm? Then pick colours that feel similar.
I wrote the [palette prompt](/prompts/brand-colour-palette) so it gives the "why" next to every colour. Honestly the why is more useful than the colours.