How to Choose Brand Colours That Work in Print

How to Choose Brand Colours That Actually Work in Print

Online, you can fake a lot with glow, gradients, and big glossy mockups. In print, there is nowhere to hide. If your brand colours are muddy, hard to read, or impossible to reproduce consistently, every piece of print marketing you create will feel a bit… off.

This guide is for creatives and side‑hustlers who want their brand to look sharp on real‑world stuff: shirts, stickers, posters, swing tags, market banners, all of it. We’ll walk through a simple, practical system for choosing brand colours that look good on screen and great in print design.

No complicated theory. Just a clear framework you can actually use.

The 3–2–1 Colour System

To keep things simple and print‑friendly, we’re going to use a 3–2–1 system:

3 core colours that hold your brand together

2 support colours that give you flexibility

1 anchor colour that makes everything readable

No need to overcomplicate it with ten different shades that only you can tell apart. This system gives you enough range to design confidently, without your brand turning into a rainbow soup.

We’ll build it step by step.

Choose Your Anchor Colour

The anchor colour is the one that quietly does the heavy lifting. It makes your text readable, your logo legible, and your designs feel grounded.

In most cases, this is either:

• A deep neutral (charcoal, navy, dark green)

• Or a soft off‑white (for when your brand tends to sit on darker backgrounds)

For print design, pure black and pure white can feel harsh. A rich charcoal or warm off‑white usually looks more considered and more forgiving across different print marketing materials.

When you’re choosing an anchor colour, ask:

Would I be happy to see this colour as:

• The type on my business card?

• The ink on my swing tags?

• The logo on my staff uniforms?

If the answer is no, keep adjusting. Your anchor has to be rock solid because it shows up everywhere.

From a colour psychology angle, this is also where you set tone. Deep navy feels stable and professional. Dark green feels grounded and organic. Charcoal feels modern and flexible. Your anchor should match how you want your brand to feel in the real world, not just online.

Choose Your Hero Colour

The hero colour is the one people remember you by. The “Bendigo Graphics Blue” of your brand. The pop you use on your signage, stickers, packaging, and social posts.

Here’s the catch: not every “wow” colour on screen is a good hero in print. Some are too bright to reproduce accurately. Others shift badly between digital and CMYK.

A few checks before you commit:

Is it still legible on light and dark backgrounds?

If your hero is soft, you’ll probably need your anchor behind it to help it stand out.

Does it clash with your anchor colour?

You want contrast, not a fight. Put them side by side and imagine them on a shirt or a sign.

Does it still feel like “you” when it’s a flat block of colour?

No gradients, no effects. Just solid ink. If it still feels like your brand, you’re on the right track.

Hero colours with a bit of softness often work better for side hustles and creative brands. Think warm terracotta instead of traffic‑cone orange. Dusty blue instead of neon cyan. You still get personality, but your colours will photograph and print more consistently.

Add a Third Core Colour

Now we round out your core palette with a second colour that plays nicely with the hero and the anchor.

This second core colour should either:

• Calm things down (a desaturated tone that keeps layouts from feeling too loud), or

• Add a bit of friendly energy (a slightly brighter colour that works well in small doses).

The goal is simple: when you look at your three together – anchor, hero, second core – they should feel like a small, tidy family. Not cousins who just met for the first time at a barbecue.

In terms of visual identity, this is the colour that often shows up as backgrounds, borders, or subtle blocks behind text. It gives you room to play in your graphic design without everything looking identical.

Add Two Support Colours

Support colours are where most people go overboard. They add five pastels, three accent neons, and then wonder why their print marketing feels messy.

You only need two support colours, and they should have jobs. For example:

• A warm neutral for backgrounds, boxes, flyers, or packaging details

• A gentle accent for call‑to‑action elements, price tags, or labels

Support colours should never compete with your hero colour. They’re the backing vocalists, not the main act.

When you’re looking at your 3–2–1 palette as a whole, ask yourself:

Could I design a full market stall setup with just these colours?

Think banner, price list, loyalty cards, packaging, T‑shirts. If yes, you’re in business. If no, you may be relying too much on “extra colours” that will complicate your print runs and confuse your branding.

Test Your Palette in Simple Layouts

Before you fall in love with your palette, strip it back and test it in three basic scenarios:

Logo in one flat colour on white.

Does it still feel like your brand when it’s just your anchor or hero colour against a white or off‑white background?

Logo in one flat colour on a darker background.

Can you reverse it out in white or your lightest shade and still read everything clearly?

Text‑heavy piece with just one accent.

Imagine a price list, menu, or information card that only uses your anchor plus one colour from your palette. If it still looks branded and easy to read, you’ve made strong choices.

If it falls apart without gradients or extra effects, your colours are leaning too hard on digital tricks and not enough on solid print foundations.

Make Everything Easy to Read

Beautiful colours that no one can read are useless. If your audience has to squint at your business card or banner, your branding strategy is working against you.

When working on print marketing pieces, keep contrast front and centre:

Light text needs a dark background.

Dark text needs a light background.

Sounds obvious, but it is amazing how many “cute” palettes die here. Pale type on slightly less pale backgrounds might look dreamy online, but in print it often turns into unreadable mush.

If you’re not sure, squint at your design or convert it to greyscale. If the important bits still stand out – your name, your prices, your call to action – your contrast is likely strong enough for real‑world use. That’s effective branding in action, not just pretty branding.

Think About What You’re Printing On

Here’s a step most people skip: decide what you’ll actually be printing on before you finalise your brand colours.

Are you mostly printing on:

• Natural card stocks and kraft papers?

• Glossy labels and stickers?

• Cotton or poly‑cotton T‑shirts?

• Vinyl banners or flags?

Different surfaces absorb and reflect ink differently. A soft dusty pink might look lovely on uncoated card but get swallowed by a black T‑shirt. A deep forest green might look chic on fabric but print almost black on certain papers.

If you know your main surfaces, you can tweak your colour selection to suit. That might mean:

• Choosing a slightly brighter shade so it doesn’t die on fabric.

• Dialling back saturation so it prints cleanly on matte paper.

• Adjusting your anchor to be lighter or darker so type is readable in all your common uses.

This is where working with a local printer who actually cares about colour (hi) can save you a lot of trial and error.

Save Your Colours in the Right Formats

Once you’re happy with your palette, it is time to make it practical. That means making sure your colours exist in the formats you actually need for graphic design and print marketing.

At minimum, you want:

• RGB or HEX for digital screens

• CMYK values for print design

• Optional: Pantone or spot references for when you want super consistent colour across lots of different materials

Even if you never say the words “colour profile” out loud, having a proper set of values means you can send your files to any designer or printer and get results that are close to what you expected.

When you supply artwork for print, always include your CMYK or Pantone values. “Kind of coral, sort of peach” is a vibe, not a spec.

Create a Simple Colour Guide

You do not need a 40‑page brand bible. You just need one clear, readable colour sheet that you and anyone helping you can follow.

Include:

• Your 3–2–1 palette with names (Anchor, Hero, Core 2, Support 1, Support 2)

• HEX, RGB, and CMYK values for each

• A few notes on how each colour should be used in your visual identity

For example:

• Anchor: use for main text, logo, and serious information

• Hero: use for buttons, calls to action, feature backgrounds

• Support colours: use sparingly for highlights, boxes, and secondary elements

Stick this playbook somewhere obvious. Every time you create a new flyer, social tile, or T‑shirt design, work from it instead of starting from scratch. That consistency is what makes your brand feel intentional and trustworthy.

Check Your Colours Suit Your Customers

You’re not building a brand for everyone. You’re building it for the people who will actually buy from you.

If your segment is creatives and side‑hustlers, your colours need to pull a specific kind of weight:

They should feel modern but approachable.

You’re not a bank and you’re not a toy shop. You’re sitting in that middle space where people care about good design, but they also care about clarity and cost.

They should look good on small, scrappy quantities.

Market stall set‑ups, small apparel runs, short‑run stickers and flyers. Your colours should still feel like “brand colours” even if you’re only printing a handful of things at a time.

They should be easy to use for DIY design.

Most side‑hustlers will eventually open Canva at 11 pm and make something themselves. A tight 3–2–1 palette means they are far less likely to go rogue and accidentally wreck their visual identity.

Ask yourself honestly: would your ideal customer feel comfortable wearing, pinning, or handing out something with these colours on it? If not, tweak. Better to adjust now than rebrand after you’ve already printed 500 shirts.

Putting It All Together

Choosing brand colours that work in print is not a mystical art. It is a series of clear, practical decisions:

• Pick an anchor colour that keeps everything readable.

• Choose a hero colour that still looks good as solid ink.

• Add a second core and two support colours with real jobs.

• Test everything in simple, high‑contrast layouts.

• Think about the surfaces you’ll actually print on.

• Convert your colours properly and document them.

• Check that your palette still makes sense for your audience and how you market.

When you treat your colours as tools, not just decoration, your print design gets sharper, your marketing feels more consistent, and your brand starts to look like it actually lives in the real world – on shirts, signs, stickers, and all the bits your business needs to look sharp.

If you want help pressure‑testing a palette before you commit, send us your colours and what you’re planning to print. We can tell you quickly what will sing, what will struggle, and how to tweak things so your brand looks as good on a T‑shirt as it does in your head.