Branding

Brand Colour Palette Generator

Enter your brand's primary colour and get a complete colour system — primary shades, secondary, accent, neutral, and dark tones — with CSS variables ready to copy.

Turn one brand colour into a complete colour system

A strong brand palette needs more than one logo colour. Interfaces, websites and design systems also need lighter tints, darker shades, supporting colours, accents, neutrals and dependable dark tones. This generator starts with a single HEX colour and builds those roles automatically.

The result is designed as a practical starting point rather than a rigid rulebook. Click any swatch to copy its HEX value, then copy the generated CSS variables when you are ready to use the system in a website or app.

Primary

Tints and shades of your seed colour for buttons, links, highlights, states and brand-led surfaces.

Secondary

Supporting hues that broaden the system for panels, illustrations and additional interface roles.

Accent

More contrasting colours intended for attention-grabbing moments such as badges, highlights and calls to action.

Neutral + dark

Low-saturation and deep tones for text, borders, backgrounds, dark mode and high-contrast components.

How to use the generated brand palette

Start by assigning roles instead of trying to use every colour equally. Your main brand colour should remain recognisable, while the supporting shades solve specific design problems.

  1. Choose a primary action colour. Use a mid or darker primary shade for key buttons and important links.
  2. Reserve accents for emphasis. If everything is an accent, nothing feels important.
  3. Use neutrals for most interface structure. Text, dividers and backgrounds usually need less saturation than brand graphics.
  4. Test important combinations. Palette generation does not guarantee every foreground/background pair meets WCAG contrast requirements.

Before publishing a website or app, check button labels, body text and navigation using the colour contrast checker.

From palette to CSS variables

The generator creates CSS custom properties for every group. That makes the palette easier to reuse consistently across components instead of hard-coding individual HEX values throughout a project.

For example, you can map a primary token to buttons, a neutral token to borders and a dark token to headings. If the brand colour changes later, updating the tokens is much easier than hunting through every stylesheet.

If you are still deciding on the seed colour, use the random colour palette generator, extract inspiration from a photograph with the image palette generator, or read the guide to creating a brand colour palette.

Brand colour palette FAQs

How many colours should a brand palette have?

There is no fixed number. Most useful systems contain a core brand colour plus supporting accents and a range of neutral and dark tones for practical interface use.

What is a seed colour?

The seed colour is the starting HEX value used to generate the rest of the system. It is usually your existing primary brand colour or the colour you want the identity to revolve around.

Are the generated colours automatically accessible?

No. Accessibility depends on the exact foreground and background pairing. Test important combinations individually with a contrast checker.

Can I use the CSS variables in any website?

Yes. CSS custom properties are supported by modern browsers and can be placed in :root or scoped to a component or theme.