Why brands need to think beyond semiotics and start using colour with intent
Colour is one of the most overused shortcuts in branding. We’re told blue means trust, green means sustainable, red means urgency... (yawn..... 🥱)
If your approach to colour is driven by category clichés, you’re not building a distinctive brand — you’re building camouflage. Did you know, 43% of Fortune 500 brands lead with blue? So blending in is almost guaranteed unless you have the budget to out-shout them.
Strong brands don’t rely on colour to signal meaning. They use colour to signal difference.
Use colour as a signal of change
When categories grow visually stagnant, colour can be the fastest way to show you’re playing a different game.
Monzo understood this perfectly. In a world of conservative banking palettes, they introduced a loud, high-visibility coral card. It wasn’t about being quirky — it was a strategic declaration: we’re not the bank you’re used to. That single colour choice became their most powerful brand asset long before the product caught up.
Oatly did something similar. Their chalky blues and greys borrow from street art instead of the polished pastels of traditional dairy brands. It positions them as agitators — a brand built to challenge, not conform.
Colour becomes meaningful not because the hue carries symbolism, but because it carries intent.
Consistency isn’t optional — it’s the work
Brands don’t suffer from audience boredom. They suffer from internal impatience.
Teams feel the itch to “freshen things up” long before customers have even formed a memory.
But distinctiveness compounds over time. The brands that win are not the ones who change the most — they’re the ones who commit the most.
Applied relentlessly, a simple colour choice can become the quickest, most efficient route to recognition.
Tinker with it too often, and you lose the most valuable asset you have: coherence.
The takeaway?
Choose with intent. Then show up with conviction.
Colour isn’t semiotics. It’s strategy. It can signal change, reframe markets and build brand memory — but only when applied deliberately and consistently.
