What’s your editorial brand palette and why does it matter?

Do you know your brand colours? They’re part of what makes you recognizable, so they’re worth paying attention to – and sticking to. Here’s one way to keep track of your choices and enforce consistency.

​What is a brand palette?

A brand palette is the group of colours you use across your business materials, including the following:

• Advertisements
• Brochures
• Business cards
• Checklists
• Directory entries
• Emails
• Fact sheets

• Forum signatures
• Publications
• Reports
• Social media images
• Style sheets
• Stationery
• Website

If we’re communicating in online spaces that we don’t control, we’re limited to a certain extent by the platform’s own brand palette.

For example, we can upload on-brand images to our Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn headers, but we can’t change the colour of the links or icons on our posts.

And members of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading who advertise in its Directory of Editorial Services can upload on-brand headshots, videos and images to their listings but must work within the CIEP’s unique brand palette.
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Do the best you can in the spaces you don’t control. In those you do, go for consistency. Here’s why it’s important.

Why a consistent brand palette is powerful

Think about brands like Coke, Reese’s Pieces, Cadbury, McDonald’s, IKEA and Aldi. You can probably reel off the colours you associate with those companies, and that means you can identify them from afar or with just a glimpse.

Editorial brand palettes work the same way. They make us recognizable such that our colleagues, clients, friends and business partners can identify us in online spaces before they’ve dug into the detail of our messaging.

If we’ve already built trust with those people, they’re more likely to take the time to engage with our content because they know who it’s from.
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Of course, they can also decide not to engage with us when our brand colours pop up in their social feeds or email inboxes because they’re not interested in us. Being recognizable means we don’t waste their time, and they don’t waste ours! 

Deciding on your brand-palette rules

Once you’ve decided which colours are in your brand palette, consider your rules. 

My brand palette comprises grey, white, grape, maroon and teal. My brand-palette rules include the following:
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• Brand-colour gradients are allowed on some sections of my website
• Tints, shades and tones of my brand colours are allowed if UX will be improved
• Buttons on my website must always be solid teal
• Linked text must always be maroon with a teal hover
• Blog-post images take grape boxes on greyscale images

If you’re the kind of editor who can hold several hex colours in your head, all power to you. I’m not. I need to record them so I can access them quickly and remind myself of the ‘rules’ I’ve created.

That's why I built a brand book. 

How to record your brand palette

A brand book isn’t the only way of recording your brand colours, but it’s useful if you want a single space in which to keep track of your brand colours, something you can access every time you create content related to your business. Mine's bookmarked so I can get to it quickly.

It's also a one-stop-shop you can send to creative consultants if you’re commissioning artwork or design services.

Don't stop at colours! Use it record all your editorial business's brand essentials. For example:

• ​Audience
• Brand colours
• Brand values
• Buttons
• Colour blocks
• Fonts

• Headshots
• Icons
• Language, style and tone
• Logo options
• Text
• Website style settings

Here's what mine looks like. Use the thumbnails to move through the slideshow. If you’d like a free copy to mimic, head over to the branding page in my resource library and select the FREE BOOKLETS icon.

If it’s not something you think you can create for yourself, the Canva template is included free with the following courses:

• Branding for Business Growth​
• Editor Website Essentials
• Marketing Toolbox for Editors

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If you’ve already bought one of them, log in to access the template, then copy it and edit it to create your own brand book quickly.

Summing up

A brand palette ensures your editing business is consistently recognizable across multiple media. That means those who already know and trust you can spot you from afar or with a glimpse. And those just getting to know you understand what to expect.
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Pick your colours and stick to them. Then keep a record of your choices. It means you can be sure you’ll be on brand everywhere! 

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

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