The Secret Life of Stubborn Colour Palettes
There’s a certain thrill in watching brand managers and marketing directors stand their ground over one particular shade of blue. Not sky, not navy. Teetering somewhere in that awkward no-man’s land we’ll diplomatically call… strategic.
It happened again last month during a pitch session I sat in on by accident. Well, I was supposed to be there for coffee, but then I saw them—six suits, one Figma file, twenty-five minutes of discussion about the emotional gravity of this one hue. Less cold than Trust Blue, more assertive than Local Council Blue. They’d mocked it up across app headers, van decals, and the wet-weather version of their merch. The stakes? A rebrand for a mobile dog grooming start-up in Hamilton. Dead serious.
Brands treat their colours like family heirlooms. There’s heritage. Trauma. One team inherited a harsh acidic red from a 1992 sports sponsorship that still hangs around like a rash. Replacing it with a softer, human palette was like asking to remove a grandparent from the family photo. But here’s the thing—consistency without relevance is just laziness with legacy wallpaper. The best brands evolve their colour not with fanfare, but with care. They ease shades across packaging like you’d sneak furniture into a shared flat.
No one wants to talk about colour because it’s either “off-brand” or “branding 101”. But it sits somewhere more slippery. Between psychology and gut instinct. Between budget constraints on printed POS and an over-confident creative director from Sydney. That meeting in Hamilton? They ended up bumping their sacred blue two tones warmer. Just enough to feel ‘fresher’ without losing their soul. It worked. The van looks better too.
It happened again last month during a pitch session I sat in on by accident. Well, I was supposed to be there for coffee, but then I saw them—six suits, one Figma file, twenty-five minutes of discussion about the emotional gravity of this one hue. Less cold than Trust Blue, more assertive than Local Council Blue. They’d mocked it up across app headers, van decals, and the wet-weather version of their merch. The stakes? A rebrand for a mobile dog grooming start-up in Hamilton. Dead serious.
Brands treat their colours like family heirlooms. There’s heritage. Trauma. One team inherited a harsh acidic red from a 1992 sports sponsorship that still hangs around like a rash. Replacing it with a softer, human palette was like asking to remove a grandparent from the family photo. But here’s the thing—consistency without relevance is just laziness with legacy wallpaper. The best brands evolve their colour not with fanfare, but with care. They ease shades across packaging like you’d sneak furniture into a shared flat.
No one wants to talk about colour because it’s either “off-brand” or “branding 101”. But it sits somewhere more slippery. Between psychology and gut instinct. Between budget constraints on printed POS and an over-confident creative director from Sydney. That meeting in Hamilton? They ended up bumping their sacred blue two tones warmer. Just enough to feel ‘fresher’ without losing their soul. It worked. The van looks better too.