Our Colors

We want our communications to resonate with all audiences, so be thoughtful when choosing color combinations for digital communications. Our digital color palette has been optimized for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) — an equal-opportunity law for people with disabilities — so that it's visually effective and functionally useful for everyone.

Contrast describes how easy it is to distinguish an element (like text) from its background. Avoid combinations that have low contrast. Common examples of low contrast are light-on-light (yellow text on a white background), dark-on-dark (navy text on a black background) or bright-on-bright (teal on orange).

Check your color choices for adequate contrast.

Although our color system relies heavily on Beaver Orange, black and white, we understand the need to complement that palette with a robust set of additional colors. To meet that need, we've developed a full set of colors to help tailor our pieces to a variety of audiences and messages.

Our secondary palette represents our four grant designations — land, sea, sun and space — as well as the dynamic and vibrant environments found throughout our state.

USE THESE COLORS SPARINGLY

Under no circumstances should any of them become the predominant color for a school, department, institute or center.

NEVER GREEN AND YELLOW

Never use Pine Stand and Luminance together in large fields or in close proximity in any instance.

TINTS AND SHADES

No values other than those listed on this page may be used. Tints and shades of these colors are not permitted. The only exceptions to this rule are Paddletail Black and Bucktooth White for readability over photos.