Marketplace Branding Colours

As part of my role at the start-up it was up to me to establish a direction for our branding.

One of the areas I used to do that, before we even have a brand name, was through analysing how our competitors are using colour and identifying potential schemes that would be unique to us.

Competitor Analysis

We want our brand to stand out when compared directly to our market competitors, especially as the business model is so similar.

Depop

Depop is about rejecting the norms, being proudly yourself, going beyond the basic. The logo is deliberately too wide, the typeface is too bold, the colour is default. “No wrong. No right. You look good already.”

Shpock

Shpock, short for Shop in your Pocket, describes itself as an alternative to eBay. Their branding is mainly based on variations of green. And they rely on the slogans “Photo. Chat. Kerching.” & “Sell it. Send it. Get Paid.”

Vestiaire Collective

Vestiaire Collective is aimed at high end designer fashion market. They use modern serif typography to appeal to their demographic. While orange and black feature, they mostly rely on professional product photography.

Rebelle

Rebelle is also aimed at the high end and designer fashion market. They too use serif typography to convey class. Their blue/green colour features prominently. “Release*, Relove” *from your wardrobe

Poshmark

Poshmark don’t operate in the UK right now, but I’ve included them in case this changes. Using a sans serif and a logo seems to be the extent this company uses branding. “Style without limits.”

Vinted

Vinted re-branded with a handwritten typeface replacing their old logo but kept their primary brand colour. “Ready to declutter your wardrobe?” “Sell, Buy and Swap clothes.”

Colour

We'll map out the brand colours currently in use and identify colours that'll visually differentiate our brand.

Narrow it down

We mask off the areas of the colour wheel where our competitors sit. To keep it simple, we'll discount the inner areas too.

Groupings

Steering clear of the colours that are too close to other primary brands, we're left with Yellow, Blue, Pink, and Purple hues.

Harmonies

To create more colourful branding we work out which harmonies work with the available primary colour hues.

There are three clear combinations of Triadic and split Complimentary colours. We're allowing secondary colours that overlap with other brands, just not primary.

Moodboards

Based on our initial findings we can start to research existing colour use in branding design. This will help us create a mental image of how we might want our branding to look or feel.

Yellow

Yellow sits tucked tightly between the other brand colours, so compliments them really well, which could be important if used for a home screen icon that sits alongside others.

Pink

Pink sits close to the Depop brand colour but lacks the gender neutral traits associated with Red.

Purple

Purple is another feminine colour, and is often associated with luxury and royalty. Spa's and luxury hotels like to use this colour.

Blue

Facebook, Twitter, and PayPal use blue as their primary brand colour. this means we could end up clashing with apps very commonly found on a users home screen.

Triadic Colours

A triadic colour combination injects life into designs through deliberate colour clashes. This can help project youth and creativity into a design.

Yellow Split Complementary

The yellow and blue combo here can be strongly associated with Ikea, but the addition of purple as a secondary colour and unique typography would help set it apart.

Purple Split Complementary

This colour combination isn't widely used in many designs. I really struggled to find good examples for this board. It's mostly used in designs related to Mardi Gras.

Blue and Red Exploration

While researching the other colour combinations I saw a number of red and blu designs I liked. So I put together a bonus moodboard in for those too. We'd Use blue as a primary colour and red as secondary.

Summary

What colours do you think are best for the brand?

Let me know on twitter, or comment on Dev.to 👍

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