What we found when we looked at 2015's 100 highest-earning companies and their logos was top-notch logo design is pretty much exactly where design in general is - favoring simple and evocative styles with minimal detail and bold colors.

The vast majority of companies use only one or two colors to represent themselves, making it crucial they make the right choice. There are a surprising number of subconscious associations our brains make with certain hues, so studying up on each color is a good idea before hitching your wagon to it.

This becomes especially fascinating when combining two shades. Pantone just announced its 2016 color of the year is in fact a blend of two colors, so going binary is clearly right on trend. From a color psychology standpoint, matching two colors can be a great way to enhance the meanings you want to communicate while offsetting some associations you're less keen on.

Take Pepsi for example – no doubt the cool, refreshing blue is a great choice for a cool, refreshing beverage. Sure doesn't hurt that blue is most people's favorite color, too. But blue is actually also kind of conservative, and might seem pretty drab for a company trying to appeal to a young demographic. No problem – in comes the red accent. Red is passionate and fun, sweeping the stuffy nature of blue right under the carpet. Red is also a trusty color for food items, as it's actually known to increase appetite. Together, both colors offset each other's inapplicable attributes perfectly.

So let this be a lesson – if you're in the market for a custom-designed logo, and are puzzling about the colors, don't get too hung up about one shade's pros and cons. Instead, ask yourself which color best applies to your company, and how any less desirable associations could be offset by carefully planned accents. Or even better – let your expert graphic designer do the worrying for you. After all, that's what they're trained for.

Toyota

General Electric

Facebook

Amazon

Cisco

Wal-Mart

Verizon

American Express

Honda

Mercedes-Benz

Budweiser

Marlboro

SAP

Pepsi

Nescafe

HSBC

The Home Depot

Audi

UPS

Ford

Accenture

IKEA

Wells Fargo

FOX

Pampers

MasterCard

Caterpillar

Colgate

Hyundai

Rolex

Volkswagen

Thomas Reuter

Santander

John Deere

Chase

Bank of America

Nissan

Red Bull

FedEx

Boeing

Goldman Sachs

Heineken

Hershey

Sprite

Want More?

Top design makes for top inspiration. Get inspired further here:

100 Famous Corporate Logos From The Top Companies Of 2015

Top Indian Startup Logos from 2014

22 Logo Designs from the World's Most Popular and Highly Paid DJs

Written by Jane Murray on Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Jane Murray is a freelance copywriter based in Sydney. Apart from writing up a storm for the DesignCrowd blog on anything from logo design to Michael Jackson's shoes, she enjoys reading literary science fiction and hanging out with most animals except wasps. Get in touch via LinkedIn.