Tints & Shades
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Scale from white (50) through Cordovan (500) to black (900), interpolated in Lab color space.
Color Values
- HEX
- #893F45
- RGB
- rgb(137, 63, 69)
- HSL
- hsl(355, 37%, 39%)
- OKLCH
- oklch(0.466 0.101 17)
- CMYK
- cmyk(0%, 54%, 50%, 46%)
--color-cordovanbg-[#893F45]Accessibility
Score: 71/100On White (#FFF)
7.34:1
On Black (#000)
2.86:1
On Light Gray (#F5F5F5)
6.73:1
Best text color on this background:
Design Applications
background-color: #893F45
color: #893F45
bg-[#893F45] text-[#FFFFFF]
border-left: 4px solid #893F45
Color Harmonies
Complementary
Pine Green
#01796F
Split-Complementary
Similar Colors
Color Meaning & Psychology
Brown is the color of earth, wood, and food — the most organic color in the spectrum. It conveys honesty, dependability, and unpretentiousness. Unlike the engineered precision of black, brown's warmth feels handmade and authentic. Coffee culture has made brown aspirational in ways it never was in the 20th century; the smell and warmth of a coffee shop is inseparable from its brown palette. Darker, richer browns signal luxury craft — leather, walnut, dark chocolate. Lighter sandy browns feel outdoor, regional, and approachable. Brown's weakness is its association with dirt and decay in medical contexts, where it is largely avoided. Its deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
Industry Usage
Common contexts and industries where Cordovan is applied in professional design.
- Coffee shops and specialty beverage brands
- Chocolate and premium confectionery
- Outdoor gear and hiking equipment
- Furniture and home furnishing brands
- Craft beer and artisanal food products
- Leather goods and accessories
- Organic and natural food products
- Heritage and classic whiskey/spirits brands
Accessibility Considerations
Normal Text
Passes 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
Cordovan is a dark color. Use white (#FFFFFF) text on top of it for maximum readability (7.34:1). Avoid small black text on this background.
CSS & Code Examples
Background
background-color: #893F45;Text
color: #893F45;Border
border: 2px solid #893F45;Box Shadow
box-shadow: 0 4px 20px #893F4540;Gradient
background: linear-gradient(135deg, #893F45, #bc6c70);Tailwind-style
--color-cordovan: #893F45;Tailwind CSS Utilities
Use arbitrary value syntax in Tailwind CSS to apply Cordovan without a custom config.
Background
bg-[#893F45]Text
text-[#893F45]Border
border-[#893F45]Ring
ring-[#893F45]Fill
fill-[#893F45]From (gradient)
from-[#893F45]Via (gradient)
via-[#893F45]To (gradient)
to-[#893F45]Design Tokens
Ready-to-use Cordovan design token in CSS custom properties, SCSS, Tailwind v3/v4, and JSON formats.
CSS Custom Properties
:root {
--color-cordovan: #893F45;
--color-cordovan-rgb: 137, 63, 69;
--color-cordovan-hsl: 355, 37%, 39%;
}SCSS Variables
$color-cordovan: #893F45; $color-cordovan-rgb: 137, 63, 69; $color-cordovan-hsl: 355, 37%, 39%;
Tailwind v3 Config
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
colors: {
'cordovan': '#893F45',
},
},
},
};Tailwind v4 (@theme)
/* tailwind.css */
@theme {
--color-cordovan: #893F45;
}JSON Design Token (W3C format)
{
"cordovan": {
"value": "#893F45",
"type": "color",
"description": "Cordovan — #893F45"
}
}More brown colors
View all →What Does Cordovan Mean? Color Psychology & Cultural Symbolism
In an era of digital abstraction, Cordovan operates as a powerful anchor to the material world. Its deep character at 39% lightness registers as reliability—a response built from millennia of associating earth-toned environments with stability, shelter, and natural abundance.
- Across color psychology research, brown consistently tests high for "authenticity" associations, making Cordovan a reliable vehicle for reliability in cross-demographic audiences.
- Brand designers draw on brown-family tones to project naturalness and warmth—values that Cordovan communicates in a deep key.
- At 37% saturation, Cordovan reads as subdued—neither overwhelming nor passive, landing in the earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity zone with measured confidence.
- Cordovan's deep lightness (39%) shifts its psychological register: a balanced mid-tone that embodies earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity at its most direct.
In a world of loud design, Cordovan is a deliberate quietness. It says: this is real.
How to Use Cordovan in Design: Applications, Pairings & Best Practices
In digital design, Cordovan adds textural warmth that screens often lack. It fights the flat, cold quality of purely digital palettes and brings a human, analog quality to interfaces.
- Avoid: technology products, clinical healthcare, and anything that needs to project cleanliness or digital precision.
- Color harmonies: Cordovan's complementary color creates a high-energy split ideal for promotional design; its analogous palette (±30° hue) builds cohesive, monochromatic sophistication.
- Proportional use: Cordovan's subdued quality means it scales well across proportions—from full-bleed backgrounds to single-pixel borders—making it an unusually versatile palette component.
- As a dark tone, Cordovan creates maximum contrast with white and light neutrals—excellent for creating premium dark-mode sections, bold headers, and high-drama brand moments
- Typography: Cordovan works as a background behind white text but requires careful sizing—test at intended heading and body sizes before finalizing.
In a world of loud design, Cordovan is a deliberate quietness. It says: this is real.
Cordovan Accessibility: WCAG Contrast Ratios, Color Blindness & Inclusive Design
Cordovan (#893F45) achieves a 7.34:1 contrast ratio with white text, surpassing the WCAG 2.1 AAA threshold of 7:1. This exceptional contrast qualifies it for body text, UI components at any size, and all accessibility-sensitive interface contexts. Relative luminance: 9.3%.
- As text on white (#FFFFFF): 7.34:1 — AAA ✓
- As text on black (#000000): 2.86:1 — Fail
- Best text color on Cordovan background: White (#FFFFFF) at 7.34:1
- WCAG 2.1 luminance: 9.3% — low luminance (dark)—it provides strong contrast for white and light overlaid text, functioning well as a background in dark-mode and header contexts
- Cordovan qualifies for all text sizes including small body copy (AAA).
- Color blindness consideration: protanopia and deuteranopia (red-green color blindness, ~8% of males) may affect how brown-family colors are distinguished from greens and browns. For critical UI states, supplement color alone with shape, label, or pattern cues.
Cordovan's WCAG profile makes it a compliant choice for most text applications.
Cordovan in Industry: Branding, Design & Market Applications
Across industry research, brown-family tones consistently outperform competitors in categories built on earthiness, stability, warmth, and authenticity. Cordovan is a deep expression of this advantage—best positioned in Food & Beverage and adjacent markets.
- Food & Beverage: Brown's associations with coffee, chocolate, bread, and wood-fire cooking make it indispensable for food brands that want to project artisanal quality, warmth, and natural origin. The color does the work of suggesting handmade, slow-craft processes before a single word is read. (examples: Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Blue Bottle Coffee) Light browns work for dairy and bakery; dark browns for coffee, chocolate, and premium spirits.
- Outdoor & Lifestyle: Outdoor, hiking, and adventure brands use brown as an earth tone that grounds the product in natural environments. Combined with forest greens and slate grays, it creates a palette language of terrain, durability, and wilderness competence. (examples: Yeti, Arc'teryx, Patagonia) Brown leather and canvas associations make it particularly effective for gear, footwear, and heritage outdoor brands.
- Craft & Artisanal: The craft movement across food, beer, candles, and home goods has made brown its unofficial color—it signals hand-made, small-batch, locally-sourced, and premium-for-a-reason. Any product that wants to claim artisanal credentials benefits from earthy, brown-anchored packaging. Kraft paper brown in particular has become synonymous with sustainable, artisanal packaging.
- Brand positioning: Cordovan is best suited for brands projecting authenticity, craftsmanship, reliability. Categories outside this positioning—technology products—tend to see weaker results.
- Adjacent applications: Beyond primary industries, Cordovan works effectively in coffee and chocolate brands, craft beer packaging, outdoor gear—contexts where authenticity serves a secondary but reinforcing role.
Cordovan earns its strongest ROI in industries where trust and recognition compound over time: Food & Beverage, Outdoor & Lifestyle, Craft & Artisanal. Use it to build the kind of brand recognition that decades reinforce.
Accessibility & Design Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the hex code for Cordovan? ▾
- The hex code for Cordovan is #893F45. Its RGB values are rgb(137, 63, 69) and its HSL values are hsl(355, 37%, 39%).
- What does Cordovan mean in design? ▾
- Brown is the color of earth, wood, and food — the most organic color in the spectrum. It conveys honesty, dependability, and unpretentiousness. Unlike the engineered precision of black, brown's warmth feels handmade and authentic. Coffee culture has made brown aspirational in ways it never was in the 20th century; the smell and warmth of a coffee shop is inseparable from its brown palette. Darker, richer browns signal luxury craft — leather, walnut, dark chocolate. Lighter sandy browns feel outdoor, regional, and approachable. Brown's weakness is its association with dirt and decay in medical contexts, where it is largely avoided. Its deeper, richer tone gives it gravitas and sophistication, making it well-suited for primary brand colors, typography, and contexts where authority matters.
- Is Cordovan WCAG accessible? ▾
- Cordovan (#893F45) passes WCAG AAA on white with a 7.34:1 contrast ratio. Its overall accessibility score is 71/100.
- What colors go well with Cordovan? ▾
- Cordovan pairs well with its complementary color Pine Green (#01796F). Analogous colors like Imperial Purple and Ink Black also work harmoniously. Check the Color Harmonies section above for the full palette.
- What is Cordovan used for? ▾
- Cordovan is commonly used for: Coffee shops and specialty beverage brands; Chocolate and premium confectionery; Outdoor gear and hiking equipment; Furniture and home furnishing brands; Craft beer and artisanal food products.
- What are the CSS and Tailwind values for Cordovan? ▾
- In CSS, use `color: #893F45` or `background-color: #893F45`. The CSS custom property is `--color-cordovan: #893F45`. In Tailwind CSS, use the arbitrary value class `bg-[#893F45]` for backgrounds or `text-[#893F45]` for text.