What's the brand color of Samsung? Dark blue, right? Huawei? Red. OPPO? Green. Xiaomi? Orange.
You know this, right?
Everyone knows this - except go to samsung.com right now, and the logo you'll see there is black and white, with not a touch of Samsung's own blue to be seen anywhere on the page.
If you visit the websites of major brands like Oppo, and Vivo, you may notice this curious trend: the absence of their signature colors.
Instead, these websites feature a monochromatic color scheme, typically black and white, with little to no trace of the brand's trademark colors. This is particularly striking given that color is often used to reinforce brand identity and recognition.
These bands, of course, still use colors in some places, like in the so-called favicon of these same pages, weirdly, which we'll get back to in a little bit. But you'll often see them going entirely monochrome or demoting their brand color to a simple accent color instead of letting it dominate.
Why brands use color and why they get rid of it
So today, let's talk about why brands use colors in the first place and why, secretly, most of them can't wait to get rid of them.
You have probably seen one of these logo timelines before, usually when someone is upset that a brand is losing all of its originality. And yes, we'll talk about simplification as well. However, my focus will be color.
To understand this trend, we have to start with some of the first logos and brand identities these companies gave themselves when they started.
These tend to be colorful, ornamental, or even both. And this makes sense. A small company just starting has two goals with its brand.
1) They want to stand out from the crowd
2) They need to introduce their products quickly and clearly
And since colors and ornaments are a great way to stand out and be remembered, new companies can not afford not to use them.
Secondly, a company needs to introduce what the company is all about quickly. They're unknown to most people, so they must present themselves at a glance.
Precise shapes can describe what a company does right away, while colors are typically associated with certain qualities and emotions. So brands pick their colors to communicate what they are all about.
Orange and yellow for youthful and dynamic; green for calm and peaceful; blue for solid, reliable, and technology-driven; red for something fast-moving and maybe even a little aggressive, etc.
Colors are, of course, more subtle than explicit shapes. Still, they make us feel a certain way about a company subconsciously, which small brands can use to quickly establish themselves and their values as they introduce themselves to new audiences.
So that's why smaller companies do it. They need to be memorable right out of the gate.
So why would more prominent companies throw all of that away? Well, they don't need them anymore as they're not unknown entities that constantly need to introduce themselves.
Everyone knows who Samsung or Apple is and what they do. So brand colors become optional.
Second, as a company grows and starts to do many things, its logo and brand must start fitting all of those different products, services, and activities. The logo has to squeeze into big and small places. It has to work on physical products, which use all sorts of colors and materials, where the logo has to match the product design and the manufacturing process. It has to fit digital products of all kinds, many of which might not fall under one consistent umbrella.
Brands also start collaborating with other brands, meaning the logos have to become even more flexible.
It's hard to stick to one specific color and elaborate shape at this point and to make it fit.
Some brands, like Anker, solve this by launching a new brand with a new logo for every new product category so they can remain distinct and fitting to the product line.
Others, such as Apple and Samsung, use one logo for everything. So almost by definition, the logo has to become as abstract as possible. That means a shape made to be as simple as possible or a brand name written out in a simple font. And it also means abstracting the color away and letting it change based on where it appears.
Third, while a bright color is memorable, it's often not elegant.
Typically, brands that want to be seen as premium lose their colors first. Apple was one of the first significant phone brands to go entirely monochrome.
Since then, others like Samsung, OPPO, and Vivo have also been leaning into it, as they're all trying to establish themselves more and more as upscale brands. Nothing and Sony, of course, started entirely black and white as they positioned themselves as designer brands from the start.
In contrast, brands like Realme and Xiaomi still use their brand colors in most of their materials, including their websites. These two have lately also been using fewer bright colors as they have grown up, but they still want to communicate that they offer aggressive prices, so going entirely black and white might send a wrong message.
Ryanair intentionally paints their cabins with an ugly shade of yellow. They make their marketing materials look cheap on purpose - to remind customers that it is a cheap flight and an excellent value.
There's a hint of that in realms and Xiaomi's branding, as well. These aren't intentionally ugly, like Ryanair. Still, they aim to be more playful and dynamic rather than super-premium. This helps them communicate that affordability is still a crucial part of their brands. That said, they use a black and white logo whenever they launch a costly product. Premium.
So they use a mix of both depending on the context.
Many of these brands do. They use both monochrome and colorful logos depending on the context.
In what context do brands use color?
When it comes to brand logos, the use of black and white versus color depends on the location and purpose. Typically, black and white logos are used in high-end places such as a brand's website, launch events, or dedicated shelves in retailers.
On the other hand, color logos are used in cheaper, busier spaces with many distractions where standing out is key.
Brands like OPPO and Vivo are known for painting streets green and blue across South and Southeast Asia, where it can be challenging to stand out. On social media, most brands also use colorful profile pictures.
The reason for these differences is that the logos have a different purpose in each place. Colors are often used when people need to identify one brand among many others, such as on a busy street. In this case, color helps the brand stand out and be memorable.
However, in high-end places like a brand's launch event or website, the goal is no longer to stand out from the crowd but to convince potential customers that their brand is fancy while letting their products shine.
Making everything else neutrally colored while only leaving the products themselves in color is a great way to draw attention to them and make them look more exciting.
