Colour

We are a blue and purple brand. This simple, yet distinctive palette of colours makes us stand out and plays a critical part in what makes us look and feel different.

Blue is a core brand colour. It is used in the Experian wordmark and acts as a consistent thread running through all of our brand material. A selection of warm magenta and purple tones also plays an important part in our palette and should be used generously across all our brand communications.

Grey is a neutral colour we mainly use for text. In most instances this will be a 80% tint of black. If your text is extremely small, you can consider using black instead of grey.

White is an essential element of our brand. In compositions and layouts, the deliberate, generous use of white space provides a sense of calm and confidence and a canvas against which the other brand colours have greater impact.

Colour is subjective and evokes different emotional responses. Even if the brand colours are not your personal favorite they need to be used. 

Our support colours are derived from our primary colours. We use a selection of tints ranging between 80% and 20% opacity.

Text on colours:

• Grey text (80%) can be used on tints ranging from 5%–50%.
• Black text can be used on tints ranging from 5%–60%.
• White text can be used on tints ranging from 60%–100%.

Tints can be used with the solid primary colours to create a tone on tone effect, or when you want to use colour with a more subtle effect than a solid colour. Though tints are provided for flexibility, care should always be taken to ensure the strength of the Experian brand. An over use of tints can betray this brand view.

Note: The 10% and 5% tints should only be used for full-colour backgrounds (as well as rounded corner rectangular backgrounds), not for small graphics or to colour holding shapes such as squircles.

Seven colours make up the tertiary palette. Their role is to enhance our primary and secondary colours and to extend the range of our palette — primarily for information graphics, charts and graphs.

Experian Alert Red and Alert Green have been added to the tertiary colour palette to indicate alert states, however they can also be used in charts and graphs when additional colours are needed.

Note: For examples on how to apply the tertiary palette, please refer to the Visualising Information guidelines. 

Note to professional designers and artworkers producing print materials:

It is important to begin your print project with the correct colour profile so our brand colours will look accurate.

• For Europe, all artwork should be created using the ‘Europe Prepress 3’ colour settings within the Abobe® Creative Suite®.
• To change your colour profile open Adobe® Bridge, under the Edit menu select ‘Colour Settings” and select ‘Europe Prepress 3’ and then apply.
• For North America, select North America General Purpose 2 within the Abobe® Creative Suite®. 

The gradient bar is a support element that is mainly used to divide and structure content. Typical examples in which it is applied are above footers or when more complex layouts require further organisation. It can also be used to create emphasis around call-outs.

The gradient, in a gradient bar, is always applied horizontally using an angle of 0°. Experian Magenta should always be applied from the left of the bar and Experian Dark Blue should always be applied from the right of the bar. The gradient is split evenly between the two colours (gradient location is at 50%).

Gradients can also be used within squircles, but only primary brand colours should be used to do this. Never use more than two colours at a time.

Note: The gradient bar should never be used as the dominant graphic within a layout or design. In print always reproduce the gradient bar using CMYK colours, never Pantone colours. To avoid reproduction issues, ensure a line thickness of at least 0.2 mm.