Mood boards are good at making everyone feel the same thing. They're bad at telling a designer what to do on a Tuesday afternoon with a price list to lay out.

Give each colour a job

We write a single line for every colour in a palette: what it's for and where it's never used. If two colours have the same job, one of them goes.

Test it on boring things

A palette that looks good on a poster can fall apart on an invoice. We test on the dullest things the brand will make, like receipts, error messages and table headers, before we test on the hero.

Leave room for the work

The best brand colours step back when they need to. Photography, products and people should get the loudest colours, not the logo.