Building on our fascination with topics related to famous logos, we turn our attention to 'purple power brands'.

Just in case you missed it, Pantone declared Radiant Orchid (Pantone 18-3224) to be the color of 2014, and already we are seeing logo designs popping up everywhere inspired by this brilliant purple color.

This article looks at how a group of famous brands - from Adobe InDesign, Cadbury, Monster, Zoopla and Hallmark through to sports teams like NFL's Baltimore's Ravens - have successfully used purple as a foundation color for their company branding.

We hope this round up provides insight and a fresh perspective on this power color.

Last month we celebrated by showcasing the best purple designs by DesignCrowd designers. In an article discussing Radiant Orchid we mentioned this shade of purple will more than likely be used as an accent color and also makes a nice complement to the Pantone 2013 color, Emerald.

But first back to basics.

Color Theory

If you don't know it already, Purple is a secondary color, meaning that it is created by mixing two primary colors (red and blue), and it is directly opposite green on the color wheel.

Purple is known for it's bright saturation - think Yahoo - and lightness - from violet to pinky hues like the color used for the InDesign logo.This makes green and purple complementary colors, which is why they work so well together.

Across the globe, countries use the color purple to indicate honor, courage, royalty and leadership, faith and sacredness, and even is used as a sign of mourning in a few locations. The color inspired US novelist Alice Walker who wrote a book turned film titled, The Color Purple.

Purple has also been a traditional royal color since ancient times. Purple is a popular choice in the creative industries for marketing, branding, design and PR agencies. Spiritual groups use purple in their branding since it has been traditionally associated with religion.

Yet big brands have different reasons to use the color purple, mainly due to the universal meanings that it portrays: mystery, regality, sensuality, power, luxury, boldness, and even sentimentality. Some brands only use the color purple as an accent color, but others use it as their identifying brand color.

While using purple in freelance graphic design as a primary brand color may not be the most popular choice, consumers recognize several large global brands - think Yahoo, Cadbury and Taco Bell - by their distinct purple logo design.

23 Famous Purple Logos ...

Hallmark

Hallmark, the famous gift card company, uses yellow lettering along with a purple background to help people associate their brand with feelings of nostalgic sentiments and luxury.

BenQ

BenQ is a company that provides high quality monitors, projectors, and other similar screen technology. Their tagline "Bringing Enjoyment N' Quality of Life" shows in their logo; the whimsical shape of the logo is the fun, while the color purple brings the element of quality and luxury.

Milka

Milka is a European product of the Kraft corporation. The purple background gives the product an honorable and trustworthy look.

Cadbury

Cadbury is known for its luxurious, almost sensual chocolate candies, so it just makes sense that the color purple is its primary brand color.

Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens use a combination of gold and purple as their team colors to signify strength and power.

ACF Fiorentina

This successful professional football team from Tuscany are often called "Viola" due to their purple team color. The team has roots in royalty, and the purple color indicates this history.

Yahoo

Yahoo! is one of the global brands that can easily be recognized by their purple color. As an Internet search engine giant, second to Google, Yahoo! uses the color purple to evoke emotions of power, boldness, and even a little mystery to encourage a response of excitement in using their engine for online searches. Last year Yahoo launched a new logo but remained loyal to purple as their brand color of choice.

LA Lakers

The LA Lakers are a well-known pro basketball team in the US. They are known for their yellow and purple colors to show confidence and boldness in the team.

FedEx

FedEx is another global organization that is known for its purple brand. Their goal is to safely deliver packages in a timely manner across the world. The color purple adds a feeling of luxury and sentimentality to their look.

Taco Bell

As a global fast food place that specializes in Mexican meals, Taco Bell chose the color purple to help evoke feelings of nostalgia and even luxury to set it apart from other fast food places.

Asprey

Asprey of London is a luxury emporium company that has also supplied royal families with crowns, coronets, and sceptres since the 1700s. The color purple signifies this royal heritage and luxury.

Wizz Air

Wizz Air is an aviation company based out of Hungary. Being in the business of flight in Europe, the color purple helps flyers associate regality and luxury with Wizz Air.

Lady Speed Stick

Lady Speed Stick, the feminine deodorant line, uses a lavendar color to portray sensuality, mystery, as well as power for women.

Wonka

The famous candy company, Wonka, is known for its purple brand color, which distinguishes it from other candy manufacturers. Regality, sentimentality, and even mystery and sensuality are all a part of the association with this brand.

Monster

As a job finder company, Monster uses the color purple to indicate its powerful search tool and success rate.

Apogee Digital

Apogee is an audio technology company that uses purple to give its customers confidence in their luxurious, top of the line products.

Scentsy

Scentsy is an MML-type business that provides high quality candles with unique scents. The color purple is perfect for portraying their brand as top notch, mysterious, unique, and even sentimental.

Zoopla

Zoopla advertises itself as the "smarter property search", so purple helps it to distinguish itself as a powerful, bold, and top of the line real estate search tool.

Sacramento Kings

The Sacramento Kings were formerly called the Rochester Royals, so a purple color was certainly an easy choice for this professional basketball team.

NYU

The New York University uses the color purple as its primary school color to show its rich heritage and powerful academics.

Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns have an interesting logo. It's interesting in the way they use yellow with purple for the flames on the basketball. Why purple? More than likely, they want to convey a regal team, full of boldness and confidence.

Syfy

As a science fiction television station, SYFY understandably chose purple as its logo color. After all, the science fiction genre is known for its mystery and sensuality.

Adobe InDesign

The Adobe InDesign logo is on the fuscia side of purple, which gives it more of a feminine quality. The color also does well in making it a creative yet luxurious brand.

In Conclusion

Purple is a slightly quirky take on traditional navy blue - the corporate world's favorite color - as you can see from the list embracing the color purple has been a creative choice that has given the brands a strategic edge. Whether you want brightness or a subtle hue, purple is an extremely versatile color choice for brands looking at logo crowdsourcing. I hope it inspires you to look beyond the typical business color palette and be bold!

 What's your favorite purple logo? Did we miss any famous purple brands? Let us know in the comments below or make your own purple logo on BrandCrowd.com!

Written by Jo Sabin on Thursday, February 20, 2014

Jo Sabin is Head of Designer Community at DesignCrowd. She's led the company's public relations and social media programs since 2012. With more than ten years' experience working with Australian and international tech startups in the creative industries, Jo has been instrumental in meeting DesignCrowd's objectives in Australia and abroad. Get in touch via Twitter.