By Jeff Randolph | Published on June 5, 2013
What Do Your Brand Colors Say Before You Say a Word?
Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet. From left-to-right, top-to-bottom, outer-to-inner, this is the color spectrum of the rainbow. Roy G. Biv is the acronym art teachers use to help children remember the sequence of hues that make up the rainbow.
Beyond the classroom mnemonic, color is one of the highest-leverage decisions a brand makes — it drives recognition, emotion, and differentiation before a single word is read. The naming challenge we describe below is the same one brand strategists face when building a color system for a company: too many options, too little shared language. That’s exactly the kind of decision EAG’s brand strategy team helps clients navigate.
Mnemonic devices aside, Roy G. Biv and primary colors have given way to a new era of color-naming beyond what we could have imagined when 96 crayons represented the outer limits of our imagination.
Roy G. Biv was a fine learning tool until you reached indigo and violet. What are those? Oh, just purple.
Indigo and violet were the first in what would become generation after generation of creative color names. While the spectrum of colors themselves has synthesized and grown exponentially, we are quickly running out of logical names to associate with those colors.
Our color palettes are changing and the thesaurus is already stretched. Have you read the descriptions in your favorite home décor or textile catalogs lately? Those aren’t colors. They are exotic spices or a new species of Amazonian tree lizard.
New variations of color, hue, saturation and tone put tremendous pressure on copywriters, especially those who craft home design and sportswear catalogs. In an effort to inspire and motivate our fellow writers, especially those laboring over next season’s ad descriptions, we offer our own color naming chart.
Like our style? If so, we’ve made it easy for you to download your own copy of the EAG Color Naming Chart.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does ROY G. BIV mean?
ROY G. BIV is a mnemonic acronym — Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet — used to remember the order of colors in the visible light spectrum, or rainbow.
Is ROY G. BIV an acronym or a mnemonic?
Technically it’s a mnemonic device (a memory aid using a name-like phrase), though it’s commonly called an acronym since each letter represents a color.
Why do brands and designers use more than seven color names?
Modern color palettes in branding, textiles, and design go far beyond the seven spectrum colors because tone, saturation, and cultural association all carry meaning — a distinction generic names like “purple” can’t capture.
How does color choice affect a brand’s identity?
Color is often the first thing a customer processes about a brand, influencing recognition and perceived personality before any messaging is read — which is why color decisions are typically made as part of a broader brand strategy, not in isolation.
How can a brand strategy agency help a business choose the right colors?
An agency brings research-backed frameworks — competitive audits, audience psychology, application testing across media — to turn a color choice from a guess into a strategic asset. Learn more about EAG’s brand strategy services.
Choosing colors for your brand? See how EAG’s brand strategy process builds a complete identity system — let’s talk.