David Ewins

Colours

I built this to get from one brand colour to a theme I can ship. Pick a colour, or start from what you want the brand to say, and you get a full light and dark palette that passes contrast, with the code.

Harmony
Start from a meaning

Palette

Tap any colour to copy its hex.

What these colours mean

Blue

Primary, Accent

In the United States and across Europe, blue is the colour people most often pick as their favourite. Surveys there link it with harmony, confidence, knowledge, intelligence, calmness, distance, the imagination, cold and sadness. Because of its link with harmony it was chosen for the flags of the United Nations and the European Union. Source

  • IBM. Nicknamed Big Blue, partly because of its blue logo and colour scheme. Source
  • Tiffany & Co.. Tiffany Blue has been a registered colour trademark since 1998. Its Pantone number, 1837, is the year the company was founded. Source
What blue means in branding

Purple

Secondary

Surveys in Europe and the United States link purple with rarity, royalty, luxury, ambition, magic, mystery, piety and spirituality. Source

  • Cadbury. Adopted purple in 1905 to honour Queen Victoria and registered it as a trademark for chocolate in 1995 and 2004. Nestlé has challenged the registrations. Source
What purple means in branding

Light and dark

Every text and background pair, checked against WCAG 2 contrast. AA needs 4.5:1 and AAA needs 7:1 for normal size text.

Light

Order confirmed

Your table is booked for 8pm. We'll text you if anything changes.

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Questions? Contact us

  • Text on background

    17.05:1AApassAAApass

  • Muted text on background

    6.15:1AApassAAAfail

  • Text on surface

    18.12:1AApassAAApass

  • Muted text on surface

    6.53:1AApassAAAfail

  • Primary as text on background

    4.86:1AApassAAAfail

  • Label on primary

    5.17:1AApassAAAfail

  • Label on secondary

    5.46:1AApassAAAfail

  • Label on accent

    4.84:1AApassAAAfail

Dark

Order confirmed

Your table is booked for 8pm. We'll text you if anything changes.

View bookingShareNew

Questions? Contact us

  • Text on background

    17.09:1AApassAAApass

  • Muted text on background

    7.75:1AApassAAApass

  • Text on surface

    15.40:1AApassAAApass

  • Muted text on surface

    6.98:1AApassAAAfail

  • Primary as text on background

    5.10:1AApassAAAfail

  • Label on primary

    4.99:1AApassAAAfail

  • Label on secondary

    4.72:1AApassAAAfail

  • Label on accent

    5.30:1AApassAAAfail

Export

Plain custom properties. Use them as var(--primary).

theme.css
/* Light by default, dark when the system asks for it. */
:root {
  color-scheme: light;
  --background: #f6f8fd;
  --surface: #ffffff;
  --border: #dadee6;
  --text: #12161e;
  --muted: #585e68;
  --primary: #2563eb;
  --on-primary: #ffffff;
  --secondary: #7a49df;
  --on-secondary: #ffffff;
  --accent: #007aa7;
  --on-accent: #ffffff;
  --brand-50: #f0f5ff;
  --brand-100: #dce8ff;
  --brand-200: #bed5ff;
  --brand-300: #96baff;
  --brand-400: #6e9fff;
  --brand-500: #4581ff;
  --brand-600: #2664ec;
  --brand-700: #134ccb;
  --brand-800: #0536a4;
  --brand-900: #01247a;
  --brand-950: #001656;
}

@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
  :root {
    color-scheme: dark;
    --background: #0d0f15;
    --surface: #181b20;
    --border: #2b2e34;
    --text: #f0f2f6;
    --muted: #a1a5ac;
    --primary: #3f7dff;
    --on-primary: #0f1217;
    --secondary: #8f62f9;
    --on-secondary: #0f1217;
    --accent: #0092c6;
    --on-accent: #0f1217;
  }
}

The colours

How it works

The palette is worked out in OKLCH, a colour space where equal steps in lightness look like equal steps to the eye. Secondary and accent colours turn the hue and keep the lightness and chroma. Anything outside what a normal screen can show has its chroma lowered until it fits.

Contrast uses the WCAG 2 formula. The meanings come from colour surveys in Europe and the United States, so they won't hold everywhere: in China, red stands for happiness and good fortune, and in many Asian cultures white is the colour of mourning.

Swatch colours on this page are my own picks, not official brand values. Brands are named only where a source says they are known for the colour.

Sources

27 pages, all read when this was written.