How to Choose a Colour Palette for Your Brand and Website

Colour is often the first thing people notice about a brand, before they read a single word. The right palette makes a business look coherent and memorable. The wrong one — or no palette at all — makes a site feel thrown together, however good the content is.

Start with how you want to feel

Before choosing colours, write down three words for how you want customers to feel: calm, energetic, premium, playful, trustworthy, natural. Colours should support those words.

What colours commonly signal

These are tendencies, not rules — and meanings differ between cultures. Use them as a starting point.

Build a palette with the 60-30-10 rule

• 60% — a neutral base. White, off-white, light grey or a very dark tone for the background.
• 30% — a secondary colour. Used for sections, headers and cards.
• 10% — an accent colour. Reserved for buttons, links and the things you want clicked.

The accent is the most important choice. If it's used only for actions, visitors quickly learn "that colour means click here".

A practical palette has five colours

1. Primary brand colour
2. Accent colour for buttons
3. Dark colour for text (rarely pure black)
4. Light background colour
5. A soft tint of the primary for section backgrounds

Write down the exact hex codes and use them everywhere — website, social posts, invoices, packaging.

Contrast is not optional

Text must be easy to read for everyone, including people with low vision or those reading on a phone in sunlight. Accessibility guidelines recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text. Light grey text on white, or white text on pale yellow, fails. Free online contrast checkers tell you in seconds.

Get inspiration without copying

• Take a photo you love — a landscape, a café, a product — and pull colours from it.
• Look at brands outside your industry for fresh combinations.
• Check what your competitors use, then choose something that stands apart.

Test it on a real page

A palette that looks lovely as five squares can look very different on a full page. Apply it to your homepage and check:

• Do the buttons stand out immediately?
• Is all the text comfortable to read?
• Does it still work in dark mode or on a phone?
• Do your product photos look good against it?

Common mistakes

• Using too many bright colours at once.
• Choosing an accent colour that's also used for decoration.
• Picking colours only because you personally like them.
• Changing colours every few months — consistency is what makes a brand recognisable.

Frequently asked questions

How many colours should a brand have?

Two or three main colours plus neutrals is plenty for most small businesses.

Can I change my colours later?

Yes, but do it as a planned refresh, updating everything at once.

On Volnyn you can set your brand colours once and every section of your site follows them — or let the AI builder suggest a palette that fits your business. Start free at volnyn.com.