Secondary Colour Palette V2 — Restrained System — February 2026
Design Response
Following Casey and Lou's feedback, this revision fundamentally restructures the colour approach. The original presentation showed all five secondary colours at equal visual weight—which, as Casey correctly identified, exceeded the 10% threshold and competed with Ice and Coal.
This version introduces a tiered colour system where Strata and Clear function as materials/textures (answering Lou's question: yes, they work beautifully alone), while Ember, Flue, and Signal are demoted to a micro-accent tier—available for chart differentiation and rare functional moments, but never as persistent visual states.
Photography carries the narrative. Colour serves the structure. Restraint is the strategy.
Guiding Principle
The strength of this brand comes from authority through restraint. Ice and Coal do the heavy lifting. Photography carries the colour and narrative weight. Secondary colours function as material qualities and structural aids—never as decoration, never competing with imagery, never shouting twice.
Tier 1 — Primary
Dominant across all applications. Together they should account for 85–90% of any layout. Every page, report, and template reads as Ice + Coal first. Everything else exists in their service.
Ice
#FFFFFF
Dominant Light
Coal
#181919
Dominant Dark
Tier 2 — Material Neutrals
Strata and Clear are treated as materials rather than colours. They add warmth, depth, and breathing room—primarily in the absence of photography. Where a photograph would carry the visual weight, these colours step back entirely. Where no image is present, they provide subtle surface variation that prevents layouts from feeling stark.
To answer Lou's question directly: yes, you can work with just Strata and Clear as your secondary palette. They provide everything you need for table alternation, chart backgrounds, card surfaces, and section differentiation in templates.
Strata
#A39382
Warm Surface
Sandstone. Geological substrata. The earth beneath the facility. Used as a warm background surface for cards, containers, and section breaks. “Brown not green” made material.
Coal on Strata 6.11:1 AA
Clear
#E8F0EE
Cool Surface
Clean atmosphere. The faintest whisper of air quality. Used as a cool background for alternating table rows, body sections, and breathing space in dense content.
Coal on Clear 15.76:1 AAA
Between them, Strata (warm) and Clear (cool) provide the tonal range needed for every template application: table row alternation, chart backgrounds, card surfaces, section dividers, sidebar panels, and pull-quote containers. No additional colour required.
Tier 3 — Micro Accents (Optional)
These colours exist in the system but are deployed with extreme restraint—never as backgrounds, never as persistent states, never as navigation. They appear only when colour must carry functional meaning that Strata and Clear cannot: differentiating data series in charts, distinguishing status indicators, or marking a single interactive element.
Think of these as spices, not ingredients. A chef uses saffron in threads, not spoonfuls. If you never use them, the brand still works perfectly. If you use one thread at exactly the right moment, it elevates everything.
Ember
#A8401F
Combustion. A single CTA. A chart data series.
Flue
#5B6D7A
Steel-blue grey. A secondary data series. Metadata.
Signal
#A57A15
Instrument amber. A tertiary data series. Emphasis.
Usage ceiling: Micro accents should never exceed 2–3% of any layout. If you can see them from across the room, you've used too much.
Colour Hierarchy
Proportional Weight
88% Ice + Coal8% Strata + Clear~4% Micro
Previous version proposed 80/10/10. This revision shifts to ~88/8/4—acknowledging Casey's point that even 10% accent colour competes with the primaries. The micro-accent tier may often be 0% on any given page. That's by design.
Application Rules
Application
Ice + Coal
Strata
Clear
Micro Accents
Website hero sections
Primary
—
—
—
Website body sections
Primary
Section breaks only
Alternating sections
—
CTA buttons
Coal primary CTA
—
—
Ember: one per page max
Report covers
Primary
Accent line only
—
—
Report interior pages
Primary
Dividers, cards
Body background
—
Tables (reports & web)
Headers, text
—
Alternating rows
—
Charts & data viz
Axes, labels
Background fill
Grid lines
Data series (up to 3)
Business cards
Primary only
—
—
—
Email footers
Primary only
—
—
—
Uniforms / livery
Coal only
—
—
—
LinkedIn / social
Primary
Card backgrounds
—
—
Photography present
Primary
Defers to image
Defers to image
Defers to image
Key rule: Where photography is present, secondary and micro-accent colours step back entirely. Imagery carries the colour. The palette serves the structure.
Template Application Demos
Showing how Strata and Clear handle the functional needs Lou identified for reports and templates—without any micro-accent colours.
Table — Report Template
Parameter
Result
Limit
Status
PM10
42 mg/m³
50 mg/m³
Compliant
SO&sub2;
18 ppm
25 ppm
Compliant
NOx
220 mg/m³
200 mg/m³
Exceedance
CO
5.2 ppm
35 ppm
Compliant
Clear (#E8F0EE) alternating rows. Coal headers. No accent colour needed.
Chart — Data Visualisation
Monthly PM10 Concentrations
Limit
Coal bars. Strata limit line. Single colour chart. Clean.
Chart — Multi-Series (Micro Accents Required)
Emissions by Source
Boiler 1
Boiler 2
Kiln
When 3+ data series require differentiation, micro accents earn their place. Coal → Strata → Ember. This is one of the few contexts where Tier 3 colour appears.
CTA Buttons — Restrained
Default approach (always use)
Exception: single high-priority CTA (rare)
Coal CTAs are the default. Ember CTA only when a single action must dominate the page. Maximum one Ember CTA per page.
Photography & Colour Relationship
When photography is present: Ice, Coal, and the image do all the work. Strata and Clear step back. Micro accents are invisible. The photograph IS the colour.
When photography is absent: Strata and Clear provide surface warmth and variation. This is their primary role—a texture that fills the visual space photography would otherwise occupy.
This ensures imagery and colour never compete. Casey's insight was precisely right: the brand shouts once, through the right channel, at the right moment.
Lou’s Question: Can we work with just Strata and Clear?
Yes. There are no strict design rules requiring more than two secondary colours. Strata and Clear provide everything you need for template applications: table row alternation (Clear), section backgrounds (Clear), warm card surfaces (Strata), chart backgrounds (Clear), and divider accents (Strata). The micro-accents only become necessary when you need to differentiate 3+ data series in charts—and even then, Coal + Strata handles two series without touching them.
This revision implements exactly that. The tier system ensures Ice and Coal are never overshadowed. Strata and Clear function as materials (like choosing a paper stock), not colours. And the micro-accents exist as a safety net for the rare moments data visualisation requires them—but with an explicit ceiling of ~2–3% that keeps them invisible in the overall design system.
The key insight: photography carries the narrative colour. The palette serves structure. When both try to do the same job, neither succeeds. This system ensures they never compete.