Using the colours

Seven colours. Most of what you make will be mostly white and grey, with dark green or near-black for the serious bits, and a small amount of red.

The seven

Colour	Hex	What it is for
Signal Red	#CF2028	The button or link you want someone to press. Nothing else.
Paddock Green	#4A5D4A	Second-choice buttons, small labels above headings, links.
Ink	#19191A	Dark backgrounds, headings on white. It is near-black, not pure black.
Graphite	#494948	Body text on white. Softer than black and easier to read.
Stone	#C0BDBD	A light grey that only ever goes on a dark background.
Mist	#F3F5F8	The very light grey you use to make one band of a page stand apart.
Earth Green	#3B4333	The deep green behind a big photo or a cover.

Copy these exactly. A colour that is nearly right looks like a photocopy of the brand.

Printing

Ask for Pantone 1795 C. That is Signal Red as an ink. The hex above is a screen value and a printer converting it by eye will not land on the same red.

If the job is full colour rather than a spot colour, tell the printer to match to 1795 C. Signal Red goes dull and brownish in uncoated CMYK if nobody says anything.

How much of each

Think of it in thirds and a bit:

• Most of it is white and Mist.
• Some of it is Ink, Earth Green and Paddock Green.
• A little of it is red. Around one thing in ten.

Red works because there is so little of it. Two red things above the fold and you have spent it.

The three that catch people out

These look fine on screen and fail when someone actually tries to read them.

Dark green text on a near-black background. Paddock Green on Ink is almost invisible. If you need green on a dark background, use the lighter green #95A395.

Stone grey on white. Stone is a dark-background colour. On white it is decoration, not text.

Pale grey text on white. If a grey looks elegant and thin, it is probably too light to read outside in daylight. Use #66696C as the lightest grey on white and go no lighter.

Remember who is reading it: often a bloke in his fifties, on a phone, in a bright paddock, possibly wearing gloves.

Colour on its own never means anything

If you use colour to show a difference, say a tick and a cross, or one line on a chart against another, the colour can never be the only signal. Add a word, a shape or a label as well. Around one man in twelve has some colour blindness.

The tokens