Tints & Shades
50
100
200
300
400
500
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700
800
900
Scale from white (50) through Brandeis Blue (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #0070FF
- RGB
- rgb(0, 112, 255)
- HSL
- hsl(214, 100%, 50%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.583 0.229 259)
- CMYK
- cmyk(100%, 56%, 0%, 0%)
--color-brandeis-bluebg-[#0070FF]Accessibility
Score: 39/100On White (#FFF)
4.41:1
On Black (#000)
4.76:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
4.05:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #0070FF
color: #0070FF
bg-[#0070FF] text-[#000000]
border-left: 4px solid #0070FF
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Burlywood
#DEB887
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Blue is the world's most universally preferred color across cultures. It slows respiration, lowers blood pressure, and promotes calm — the physiological opposite of red. Blue's associations with sky and water make it feel limitless, trustworthy, and reliable. In corporate design, blue dominates banking, insurance, healthcare, and technology precisely because it communicates stability. Dark navy conveys authority and tradition; royal blues suggest quality and aspiration; sky blues feel open and optimistic; teal bridges trust with modernity. The primary limitation of blue is food — it suppresses appetite, with almost no naturally blue foods existing in nature. At medium lightness, it is the most versatile tone of this hue family — readable as text on light backgrounds, yet vibrant enough as a visual accent.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Brandeis Blue is applied in professional design.
- Banking, insurance, and financial institutions
- Healthcare and medical device companies
- Enterprise software and SaaS platforms
- Government and public sector organizations
- Airlines and aviation brands
- Communication and social networking apps
- Cybersecurity and data protection products
- Pharmaceutical companies and clinical products
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Fails AA
4.5:1 minimum required
Large Text
Passes AA Large
3:1 minimum required
UI Components
Meets 1.4.11
3:1 for non-text UI
Brandeis Blue is a light color. Use black (#000000) text on top of it for maximum readability (4.76:1). Avoid white text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #0070FF;Text
color: #0070FF;Border
border: 2px solid #0070FF;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #0070FF40;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #0070FF, #6a9eff);Tailwind-style
--color-brandeis-blue: #0070FF;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Brandeis Blue without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#0070FF]Text
text-[#0070FF]Border
border-[#0070FF]Ring
ring-[#0070FF]Fill
fill-[#0070FF]From (gradient)
from-[#0070FF]Via (gradient)
via-[#0070FF]To (gradient)
to-[#0070FF]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Brandeis Blue design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-brandeis-blue: #0070FF;
--color-brandeis-blue-rgb: 0, 112, 255;
--color-brandeis-blue-hsl: 214, 100%, 50%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-brandeis-blue: #0070FF; $color-brandeis-blue-rgb: 0, 112, 255; $color-brandeis-blue-hsl: 214, 100%, 50%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'brandeis-blue': '#0070FF',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-brandeis-blue: #0070FF;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"brandeis-blue": {
"value": "#0070FF",
"type": "color",
"description": "Brandeis Blue — #0070FF"
}
}More blue colors
View all →What Does Brandeis Blue Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
The reason Brandeis Blue projects reliability is partly evolutionary (blue skies and clean water = safety) and partly cultural (centuries of professional, governmental, and institutional use have trained associations). The result is a color that creates instant psychological permission to engage.
- Blue is the most universally trusted color in Western design—associated with authority (government, police, corporate), intelligence (universities, technology), and emotional calm (water, sky). It's the dominant color in corporate branding precisely because it creates immediate credibility.
- In Chinese tradition, blue represents immortality and the heavens, associated with the element of wood and spring vitality. In many Islamic cultures, blue offers protection from evil (the "evil eye" tradition), and in Indian traditions it's associated with divinity (Krishna).
- Brandeis Blue's medium lightness (50%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism at its most direct.
- At 100% saturation, Brandeis Blue reads as vivid—Electric and royal blues are modern, confident, and digitally native—they signal tech-forward positioning and work well for startups challenging traditional industries.
The power of Brandeis Blue is quiet consistency. It builds trust cumulatively, appearing wherever credibility matters.
How to Use Brandeis Blue in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
The design challenge with Brandeis Blue is differentiation: every major institution uses blue. The answer lies in tone, proportion, and pairing—how a specific blue is used matters more than whether it's used.
- UI components: primary brand color, link color, interactive states—Brandeis Blue performs reliably in all these roles with its medium tonal character.
- Brand & identity: corporate identity, banking and finance UIs, healthcare platforms—contexts where Brandeis Blue's vivid quality creates the right register.
- Typography: Brandeis Blue as text requires a dark background; its 50% lightness means it provides 4.4:1 contrast on white, not meeting WCAG AA.
- Brandeis Blue creates strong legibility with black text overlays (4.8:1 contrast ratio), making it a reliable background or surface color in design systems
- Proportional use: Brandeis Blue's vivid saturation (100%) means small applications—accents, highlights, icons—deliver maximum impact without visual fatigue. Reserve large-scale use for intentional brand moments.
The power of Brandeis Blue is quiet consistency. It builds trust cumulatively, appearing wherever credibility matters.
Brandeis Blue Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Brandeis Blue (#0070FF) reaches 4.76:1 contrast with black text—meeting WCAG 2.1 AA minimum of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. It clears standard production accessibility requirements. Relative luminance: 18.8%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 4.41:1 — AA (large text only)
- As text on black (#000000): 4.76:1 — AA ✓
- Best text color on Brandeis Blue background: Black (#000000) at 4.76:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 18.8% — mid-range luminance—it sits in the transition zone where both dark and light text approaches require testing against the 4.5:1 WCAG threshold
- Brandeis Blue qualifies for normal body text and all larger sizes (AA).
- Color blindness consideration: tritanopia (blue-yellow color blindness, ~0.003% of population) may affect how this color reads. While rare, for maximum accessibility supplement color signals with text or icon indicators in critical states.
For production use, test Brandeis Blue against your specific background colors rather than assuming #FFFFFF or #000000 performance translates. Surrounding colors alter perceived contrast.
Brandeis Blue in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Brandeis Blue's brand positioning falls squarely in the territory of trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism. Industry data supports its strongest performance in finance, technology, healthcare categories, where the vivid saturation calibrates the message at a medium, considered level.
- Finance & Banking: Blue is the most trusted color in financial services—a global design convention built over decades. It signals fiduciary reliability, stability, and the conservative stewardship that depositors and investors need to feel comfortable transferring wealth. (examples: Capital One, PayPal, Visa) Dark navy communicates established tradition; mid-tone blues suggest accessible, modern banking. Avoid pure bright blue for legacy institutions.
- Technology: Technology brands use blue to communicate intelligence, reliability, and forward-thinking professionalism. From legacy enterprise software to consumer apps, blue provides a neutral credibility that scales across markets and cultures. (examples: Apple, Microsoft, Salesforce) Varying the tone of blue is how tech brands differentiate: sky blue for friendliness (consumer apps), royal blue for confidence (productivity tools), navy for enterprise seriousness.
- Healthcare: Healthcare's use of blue is a trust transfer from corporate credibility to clinical reliability. Patients associate blue with cleanliness, precision, and medical competence—making it the second most common healthcare color after white. (examples: Headspace, One Medical, Kaiser Permanente) Teal-blue works particularly well for health tech and telemedicine, balancing clinical trust with digital accessibility.
- Brand positioning: Brandeis Blue is best suited for brands projecting trustworthiness, reliability, professionalism. Categories outside this positioning—food contexts where it suppresses appetite (the only major color with no natural blue foods)—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Brandeis Blue works effectively in corporate identity, banking and finance UIs, healthcare platforms—contexts where trust serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
For marketers and brand strategists, Brandeis Blue is a commitment to trust, reliability, calm, and professionalism. Match it with industries that make that promise and it will pay dividends consistently.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Brandeis Blue? ▾
- The hex code for Brandeis Blue is #0070FF. Its RGB values are rgb(0, 112, 255) and its HSL values are hsl(214, 100%, 50%).
- What does Brandeis Blue mean in design? ▾
- Blue is the world's most universally preferred color across cultures. It slows respiration, lowers blood pressure, and promotes calm — the physiological opposite of red. Blue's associations with sky and water make it feel limitless, trustworthy, and reliable. In corporate design, blue dominates banking, insurance, healthcare, and technology precisely because it communicates stability. Dark navy conveys authority and tradition; royal blues suggest quality and aspiration; sky blues feel open and optimistic; teal bridges trust with modernity. The primary limitation of blue is food — it suppresses appetite, with almost no naturally blue foods existing in nature. At medium lightness, it is the most versatile tone of this hue family — readable as text on light backgrounds, yet vibrant enough as a visual accent.
- Is Brandeis Blue WCAG accessible? ▾
- Brandeis Blue (#0070FF) passes WCAG AA-large on white with a 4.41:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 39/100.
- What colors go well with Brandeis Blue? ▾
- Brandeis Blue pairs well with its complementary color Burlywood (#DEB887). Analogous colors like Ocean Teal and Baby Blue also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Brandeis Blue used for? ▾
- Brandeis Blue is commonly used for: Banking, insurance, and financial institutions; Healthcare and medical device companies; Enterprise software and SaaS platforms; Government and public sector organizations; Airlines and aviation brands.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Brandeis Blue? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #0070FF` or `background-color: #0070FF`. The CSS custom property is `--color-brandeis-blue: #0070FF`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#0070FF]` for backgrounds or `text-[#0070FF]` for text.