Is red a good colour for my branding?
The colour red is unmistakeable: bright, immediate and eye-catching; it is hard to ignore. For thousands of years it has influenced human society and culture, whether in royal, military or religious contexts. In essence, the colour red signifies power, prestige and dynamism in branding, which is why it is a popular, but bold, choice.
This does not necessarily mean every business brand can pull it off successfully - red has some sharply opposing associations, and some might be put off by its brightness; but we’ll help navigate you through its different facets and what they could mean for your business.
Regardless of whether it is a good choice for your business brand or not, we can learn a lot from the colour red, as many of its insights are transferrable to the other colours in this series or a potential branding project.
Read on as we dig into the colour red and explore how you can use it in the best way for your business brand.
This series on colour psychology for businesses and their branding is adapted from Kassia St Clair’s excellent book, ‘The Secret Lives of Colour’. (The beautiful, sought-after hardback version is well worth getting hold of!). The best places to buy ‘The Secret Lives of Colour’ are direct from the publisher, from your local independent bookseller, from bookshop.org or – as a last resort – from Amazon. Although Amazon is cheaper and more convenient, it is not a force for good in the world of books. Please support writers, publishers and small businesses directly if you can.
“[Red has] a feeling of sharpness, like glowing steel which can be cooled by water”
Edward Bulmer Pompadour paint on a sitting room wall. Image: Edward Bulmer
Farrow and Ball’s Preference Red paint in a dining room; also home of Maria Nordlund Design. Image: Farrow & Ball
Farrow & Ball’s Incarnadine paint above a table. Image: Farrow and Ball
Wildings is a design agency in Devon. Our studio is based in Torquay, South Devon, and we provide branding for creative, hospitality and lifestyle businesses across Devon and the UK (like garden designers, interior designers, architects, floral designers). In this series, we’re looking at the power of colour in branding for small businesses, and this one is all about the colour red. We want to help you harness the amazing characteristics of colour to maximise your small business brand: catch up on the previous article, ‘How to get the best from orange for your branding: bright, vivid & urgent’ or explore the rest of our series on Colour Psychology for business brands →
Where does the colour red come from?
We first come across the colour red in the dye used to colour clothes which date back to between 4,000 to 6,000BC, so it has been in circulation for a long time!
And, as we’ll see, it has a special place in the collective human consciousness. As with many of the other colours in our Colour Psychology series, red is derived from various sources, whether natural or artificial:
Kermes dye was used to create Scarlet (bright red hue) by crushing the bodies of beetles (similar to the shellfish that produced Tyrian purple)
Similarly, Cochineal (another bright red) came from another insect, the tiny Dactylopius coccus
Vermillion (intense deep red) is mercury sulphide, which can be extracted from the naturally occurring mineral cinnabar
Hematite (spans a variety of shades of red) is iron oxide in mineral form and easily extracted from the ground
Alazarin is a compound from the roots of the Rubia family of flowering plants (more commonly known as madder)
As with other colours in the series, the more difficult, time-consuming or hand-made the manufacture of a dye, the more exclusive and expensive it becomes (compare it with purple, for example).
In the case of the colour red, the involved nature of production led to it becoming the colour of exclusivity and power, which we’ll explore next.
What does red mean in business branding?
In essence, red symbolises power and prestige.
By using it in your business branding you essentially align your business with these qualities it embodies.
“The finest and brightest colour... full of fire, and of a brightness which dazzles the eye.”
Whether you’re a ruler, military general or historical ‘redcoat’ in the British Army, red is strongly associated with power and aggression. It also explains why, as recently as 1999, 74% of the world’s flags are, or contain, red.
The colour red also has strong associations with blood and sex, which is why it has become the signifier of lust (and prostitution on the far edge of the spectrum). As such, in terms of branding, businesses brands that feature red prominently are seeking to capitalise on its positive attributes.
By using red, they seek to project that sense of power, prestige or perhaps aggression (in the sense of ‘get up and go’ or speed): ‘We are a powerful, prestigious brand’. Equally, a business brand might choose the colour red to tap into its carnal side; to convey drama, eroticism or depth.
What is an example of red branding?
Because of the powerful connotations you get with the colour red, there are lots of good examples of red branding to choose from.
Virgin (or Virgin Group), comprising sub-brands like Virgin Media or Virgin Atlantic, is a prime example of a business that has successfully taken hold of red’s power and prestige. In particular, the key to the success of Virgin’s use of red, is how it has used the colour to reinforce its positioning in the market: a bold, outsider, renegade brand, which is interestingly reflected in the personality of owner Richard Branson.
A second example should not come as a surprise: Coca-Cola (The Coca-Cola Company or Coke). Coca-Cola originally sourced its primary ingredients from Peru, which explains why it borrowed red from the Peru flag. Coca-Cola typically emphasises in its marketing how its brand makes people feel (joy, family, good times), but the colour red underlines its goal to be a prestige brand name.
Flatlay by Wildings Studio for Abigail Reay Interior Architecture Studio, featuring Farrow & Ball, Fermoie, Guy Goodfellow, Robert Kime fabrics & stationery
Business cards for Abigail Reay London interior architecture studio, featuring her signature red, inspired by Farrow & Ball’s Preference Red
Is red a good colour for small business branding?
There are a lot of good things going for the colour red in branding, as mentioned, but it can be quite polarising colour: one the one hand powerful; and yet on the other hand sexual. Or, depending on how you read it, the colour of martyrdom or prostitution; two quite opposite usages!
“This potent brew of power and sexuality make the colour [red] a bold but tricky choice for brands”
Therefore, red needs careful handling as a brand colour for your business otherwise you can run the risk of conveying unintended meanings. (This is a risk with all colours.)
As a general rule, red is a very bold and eye-catching colour, so a good choice for small business brands. A great example of red in business branding comes from the motorcar racing tradition in Italy.
In 1907, the French newspaper, le Matin, announced a challenge to drive by car from Peking (now Beijing) to Paris. At that time this was unprecedented, as cars were still in their infancy.
The Italian team chose a model from Turin, in northern Italy, which had bright poppy red paintwork. Observers commented on the Italian red:
“It conveyed an immediate impression of purpose and go”
It goes without saying that it triumphed and the car’s red hue subsequently became Italy’s racing colour (compared with British Racing Green).
This set the precedent for a rich heritage of car racing in Italy, perhaps epitomised by Ferrari, which used the hue rosso corsa (racing red) for its models: such as the 1980s icon, the Type F110 ‘Testarossa’ (literally, the red head).
So, is red a good colour for small business branding? Well, the obvious, subconscious response is likely to be, ‘If it’s good enough for Ferrari, it’s good enough for me!’.
This is the power of branding at work for businesses. If your business values align with the values of red (power, prestige, purpose and drive), then it’s hard to see why red wouldn’t be a good choice.
As with any branding approach, a careful consideration of your brand strategy needs to come first before you even consider colour choices, which is the second, Brand Identity, part of the process.
A set of four hues of red, ranging from muted to very bright!
Get inspired by the colour red
Why not enjoy the interactive orange moodboard below - click and move images around. The sources of the moodboard and image attribution can be found on Pinterest here
The mood board sources and image attribution can be found on Pinterest here
Examples of brands using the colour red
There are lots of famous brands using red, but here are some smaller brands that use red in interesting ways to draw out its various qualities! Fermoie is a British home decor brand that creates fine fabrics using sustainable approaches. Abigail Reay is a London interior architecture & interior design studio; founder Abigail loved Farrrow & Ball Preference Red paint colour, so leaned into that as a signature colour in her branding. Cloth is a British based natural dye house, creating naturally plant-dyed sustainable textiles for fashion & interiors. It’s products are free from toxins, plastics and pollutants.
Hopefully this short overview of the colour red has been helpful in relation to your branding as a small business. Watch out for upcoming instalments on colour psychology and how it feeds into your branding or browse previous articles below.
If you’d like to learn more from us on branding or get visual inspiration, follow Wildings Studio on Instagram or read more of our blogs on branding too.
