Build Stage

Brand Color Palette

Pick a base color, get a coordinated 5-color palette and full shades scale. Copy individually or all at once.

Click any swatch to copy that hex. Use the buttons above for the full set.

Why brand color matters

Color is processed before text. A visitor decides whether a site feels trustworthy, premium, playful, or cheap within milliseconds — before reading a word. Consistent color across your site, emails, social, and packaging builds recognition faster than any logo.

The goal isn't to pick a beautiful color. It's to pick a system: one primary, one or two secondaries, an accent, and neutrals that hold everything together.

Color harmony basics

  • Analogous — colors next to each other on the wheel (blue, teal, green). Feels calm and cohesive. Safe for most brands.
  • Complementary — opposite colors (blue and orange). High contrast, energetic. Best for accents, not large surfaces.
  • Triadic — three colors evenly spaced (red, blue, yellow). Playful and bold. Hard to balance without neutrals.
  • Monochrome — single hue, different lightness. Safe, sophisticated, quiet. Used by many premium brands.
  • Split complementary — one color and the two neighbors of its opposite. Strong but less harsh than pure complementary.

How to use the palette

  1. Primary — the brand color. Used in logo, main buttons, key headings.
  2. Secondary — supports primary. Used for section backgrounds, secondary buttons.
  3. Accent — pulls attention. Used sparingly for calls to action.
  4. Neutrals — light grays for backgrounds, dark grays for text. Not from the palette wheel — defined separately.

A common mistake is using all five colors everywhere. Use the primary and neutrals 80% of the time. Save the accent for moments that matter.

What the shades scale is for

The 7-swatch shades row is a single-hue scale from very light to very dark. Designers use it for:

  • Hover states — one shade darker than the base
  • Borders — a light shade at low opacity
  • Backgrounds — the lightest shade for cards and sections
  • Text on colored backgrounds — the darkest shade

This is why you don't need five different accent colors. You need one accent color and a full range of shades for it.

Exporting the palette

Three ways to get the colors into your project:

  • Copy All Hex Codes — pastes as plain text, one per line. Useful for Figma comments, chat messages, or pasting into a doc.
  • Download as CSS Variables — a ready-to-paste :root block with --color-primary-1 style names. Drop straight into a stylesheet.
  • Download as JSON — array format for design tools, theme systems, or Tailwind config.

Contrast and accessibility

Text on a background should hit a WCAG contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text. Most brand palettes fail this on light backgrounds — pale yellow text on white, for example.

Before using a palette, check contrast on the actual text colors. WebAIM's contrast checker or Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools will flag failures.

Common mistakes

  • Using more than six colors. Consistency suffers.
  • Picking colors you love but customers don't trust.
  • Ignoring colorblindness (8% of men can't distinguish red/green).
  • Using pure black (#000) on pure white (#fff). Harsh and tiring.
  • Mixing five different shades of blue. Feels unpolished.

Related tools

Frequently asked questions

How many colors should a brand palette have?

Most brand palettes use 4–6 colors: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 1–2 accent, plus neutral. More than 6 becomes hard to keep consistent.

What is a color theory complementary color?

Complementary colors sit opposite each other on the color wheel (e.g. blue and orange). They create strong contrast and work well for accents.

Should I use HEX, RGB, or HSL?

Use HEX for web and CSS. RGB for design software. HSL for adjusting lightness and saturation. All three describe the same color.

What is color contrast and accessibility?

Text on a background should have a WCAG contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text. Light text on light backgrounds fails accessibility.

What is the shades scale for?

It's a single-hue range from light to dark. Use it for hover states, borders, backgrounds, and text on colored surfaces — so you don't need five different accent colors.

Design helper only. Color choices are subjective. Always check accessibility contrast and test your palette on real devices and printed materials before committing.