What Your Logo Color Says About Your Brand
"Color boosts brand recognition by 80%" has been repeated for years — but its source is dubious and largely a distorted myth. By contrast, a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services offers a real, measurable finding on logo color.
What the research found
Across six separate studies with a total of 2,274 participants, black-and-white logos were found to raise perceived brand status compared with color logos. The effect works through the "coolness" that black-and-white evokes.
The study also shows that color choice measurably shapes not only status but the brand's perceived personality and product variety. In other words, color isn't a decorative detail; it's a quiet but powerful signal of how a brand is positioned. What matters is not "which color is prettier" but whether the color matches the position the brand wants to convey.
What it means for brands
First, drop the myth: no single magic percentage explains a logo color's success. The truth is context-dependent. For a luxury brand seeking to convey status and prestige, a black-and-white identity can be a strong choice; for a brand emphasizing vibrancy, accessibility, or variety, color may be the better route.
That's why logo color is not an arbitrary aesthetic call but a strategic positioning decision. The right question isn't "which color is popular?" but "what status, personality, and value does my brand want to convey to its audience — and does the color support that?"
Brand and brand-identity work comes in precisely here: treating color as a measurable perception lever rather than a feeling, and basing the decision on the brand's position rather than on trends. A color strategy grounded in evidence instead of myth gives a brand both distinctiveness and consistency.
In the end, your logo's color speaks about your brand before you say a word; the point is to make sure it says the right thing.
References
- The color of status: Effects of logo color on brand status perceptions. (2026). Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 88. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969698925003431
