Guest Blogger Miceala Soucy ’18
Part of standing out to future employers is creating a personal brand early on in your professional life. A personal brand only works however, if it is memorable, consistent, differentiated and adds value. Of those characteristics, consistency is a key approach to creating a memorable brand. One way we learned to achieve consistency is through choosing one of the following aspects and incorporating it into resumes, portfolios, websites etc.: color, character, font, shape/pattern, images and tone/voice.
The aspect that I believe is easiest to make a brand for yourself with is color. All colors symbolize something and connote similar values to everybody. Below is a description of what the eight most common colors associated with brands mean to the majority of people.
Red: This color symbolizes energy, strength, power, passion, desire and love. It is used in a lot of signs to symbolize danger such as in traffic lights, yield signs and high voltage signs. Red has a high visibility which is why it is incorporated into a lot of big name brands.
Orange: The associations with orange combine the symbolism of red and yellow, making it represent joy, sunshine, enthusiasm, determination, encouragement and stimulation. Although it is not as strong as red, it is usually associated with heat. It is also the color of autumn and Halloween.
Yellow: This color is associated with the sun and represents joy, happiness, intellect and cheerfulness. Yellow is used to attract attention, like in warning signs, but is also perceived differently by men than women, making it effective for only a certain demographic in some cases. It is not used when trying to suggest stability.
Green: This is the color of nature. It connotes growth, harmony and freshness. It is also highly associated with money. As opposed to red, green represents safety. It is restful to the human eye.
Blue: The sea and the sky are made of this color. It symbolizes depth, stability, trust, loyalty, faith, truth and heaven. It is a calming color usually used to represent cleanliness, but also strongly associates with the male gender.
Purple: The combination of blue and red symbolizes stability and energy. It is also associated with royalty, extravagance, wisdom, independence, creativity and mystery. It is the prefered color of most adolescents and people of the female gender.
White: This color is associated with light, goodness, innocence and purity. As opposed to black, white usually bring positive connotations. It is used to represent coolness and cleanliness, as in the color of snow and doctors jackets.
Black: This color is used to represent power, elegance, death and evil. It symbolizes fear and the unknown and brings about negative connotations. It can also be used as a symbol of grief. Black contrasts well with other colors and so is usually used in conjunction with bright colors.
Click here to learn more about colors and their meanings at color-wheel-pro.com.
If one of these descriptions sticks out to you, it might be the one to use for a personal brand. You can use the color as heading titles in resumes, color accents on websites such as in a title bar or the color of text with links, and much more. If you are still unsure what color represents you, take this quiz to find out.
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