Kick-Start Your Start-Up with 2017 Colours

If you are preparing to launch a business or your company is still in the early stages, consider how your company colours might reflex on your business. Your logo, offices space, business cards, and website all need to reflect the right tone. A large part of the impact will be the colours you use. From office furniture to product packaging, colours have a big impact. Pantone has again released their colour forecast for the coming year. In 2017, the colour of the year is expected to be Greenery. While it may seem strange to predict the colour of the year, Pantone has a history of being eerily correct in their colour forecast.

Pantone describes Greenery as a “fresh and zesty yellow-green shade that evokes the first days of spring.” Calling the colour “symbolic of new beginnings” perhaps Pantone sees 2017 as a calmer time after 2016 Brexit and the wave of other political changes that seemed to sweep much of the world in 2016. Think pleasing green things like Kermit the Frog and new buds on trees.

The other colours for the year trend heavily toward natural with a few pops of bright, cheery colours. Panton expects us to see a trend with more natural colours incorporate into businesses, fashion, and online. They describe Greenery as “nature’s neutral” explaining that people will be seeking a refuge from the hustle and bustle of modern life.

Colour Your Business Ready for 2017

How do the new trends in colour matter to your start-up company? While you don’t want your company to seem overly trendy, these fresh colours speak of being on-point with understanding current trends in the working world. How you’ll put these colours to work of course depends on your industry.

Online and On-Target

For dot com companies, these colours could be particularly important since the constantly changing online world is extremely sensitive to anything that appears “dated.”  For every company, a quick refreshing of your website colours could have a huge impact in terms of keep your site looking modern. For online retailers, expect to see an increase in clothing and products in these earth-based colours and friendly bright shades. Clothing and everything from office supplies to home products is likely to be impacted.

If your start-up is still in its infancy, this could be the time to incorporate the 2017 colours into your company logo and products. The 2017 colour of the year will probably remain a strong popular colour for a number of years. Better to pick colours for the coming year that to stick with last year’s colour trends.

Adding Colour to Your Brick and Mortar

If you are just setting up your store front, your timing is excellent. Now is a perfect time to include these colours in your new business. Think in terms of seating, paint, wall art, and cups, in addition to your logo. With natural and cosy themes expected to be popular, think how your products or services can best take advantage of this emerging theme.

If your storefront is already established, there are plenty of other ways to put these colours into use. Easy changes could include new icing colours and flavours. Painting an accent wall could add a fresh punch of colour and make a drastic difference in the atmosphere within your business. Even adding a colour with fresh artwork on your walls or elements of wood or other earthy components, could be a great way to take easily advantage of the trend.

Making Your Office Space a Natural Space

Your office space says a lot about you and your company. Even if clients rarely visit, these workspaces set the tone for your current employees and have an impact on your potential hires. If your company is already off the ground, think about ways you could bring hints of the 2017 colours and natural into your workspace. Painting feature walls and artwork can have a big impact. To make even more of a difference in the liveability feel of your offices, consider adding plants and both decorative and functional items made of wood or ceramics.

If you are in the process of setting of your offices, consider how to make use of these 2017 trends in your workplace. Start-ups are often so focused on building the business that they forget to create a professional workspace. While everyone loves the story of start-ups that began in a garage and became world famous titans of their industry, appearances still matter. Clients, employees, and financial backers will, consciously or not, factor in the look of your offices into their impressions of your business. In addition, poorly designed offices lead to poorer employee performance and reduce productivity. It is important to have a workplace design that will reflect appropriately on your fresh new business.