Green is a color you don’t see often in marketing and design. It’s nuanced and not nearly as popular for logos as red or blue. Also, people tend to think it represents nature or eco brands best. So, if you’re working in an unrelated industry, the color doesn’t appear frequently.

Often associated with the environment, forest green has been used for designs related to causes supporting the earth and its ecosystem. – Canva

Green can represent more than earth-friendly, caused-based marketing. It’s a life-affirming tone. People see green as a natural and sensuous color. Most people link it to friendliness, refreshment, and healing. Dark green colors telegraph wealth, fame, and power.

People usually associate this color with:

  • Good Taste
  • Envy
  • Power
  • Wealth
  • Healing

Example Brands

  • Whole Foods
  • BP
  • Spotify
  • Starbucks

Whenever you see a brand using green, they usually picked the bright or dark end of the spectrum with intention.

Bright or neon greens are playful — rebellious and unexpected.

Light greens remind us of springtime and sweetness.

Dark greens signal affluence and luxury.

Greenery Pantone Color of the Year 2017

When Pantone announced greenery as 2017’s color of the year, the Mucinex jokes quickly followed. They envisioned the color as a fresh, natural tone — even if the general public wasn’t keen on the hue.

A REFRESHING AND REVITALIZING SHADE, GREENERY IS SYMBOLIC OF NEW BEGINNINGS. – Pantone

They paired it with a variety of tones, hailing it as nature’s neutral. But, the shade hasn’t taken off like other colors of the year.

All the Greens I like more than Greenery

Thinking about green tones prompted a series of moody greens. I do like a few, bright spring greens. Yet, I tend to prefer greens that remind me of the smell of earth after the rain.

Quick Tip: If you’re working in Illustrator, download my color palette images then drop them next to your artboard. You’ll be able to pull the colors quickly.

Find More Color Inspiration

If you enjoyed this post, jump to the Graphic Design category in my articles. It’s full of color inspiration and I regularly post color palettes with hex codes.