Palette generator

Generate a brand colour palette.

Browse 15 curated palettes across 5 moods. Every hex code is printed on this page, and any value copies with a click.

The short answer

This page lists 15 brand colour palettes across 5 moods, with all 75 hex codes printed on the page and a note on which colour should do which job in each one. Pick a mood to see the palettes grouped and copy any value with a click. They are curated starting points chosen by eye, not algorithm output, and none of them has been tested for contrast compliance. Check that yourself before using one for body text.

Pick a mood to see its 3 palettes as swatches. Every palette on the site is also listed with its hex codes further down this page.

All 15 palettes and their hex codes

The full set, printed rather than hidden behind the picker. The note in each row is the part that matters more than the colours: which value carries backgrounds and text, which one is the single brand colour, and which ones should appear in small quantities only.

PaletteMoodHex codesHow to divide it up
Electric Emberbold#0B0F2B #F63A5F #FFB400 #1BD3C2 #FFFFFFThe near-black carries backgrounds and body text. The red-pink is the single action colour. Amber and teal are accents used sparingly, and white does the breathing room.
Noir Popbold#111827 #FF3C68 #7C3AED #F3F4F6 #F59E0BA dark neutral base with 2 competing brights. Pick either the pink or the violet as the dominant accent and hold the other back, or the pair fights.
Citrus Inkbold#1E293B #EAB308 #DC2626 #0F172A #FEF3C72 dark slates give depth without going flat black. Yellow leads, red is reserved for genuine emphasis, and the pale cream keeps large areas from feeling heavy.
Slate and Sagecalm#334155 #94A3B8 #CBD5E1 #D1FAE5 #0F172AA greyscale ramp doing most of the work, with 1 soft green as the only real colour. Restrained enough to sit under dense text without competing with it.
Morning Dewcalm#1E3A8A #BFDBFE #F1F5F9 #475569 #FFFFFFDeep blue for headings and structure, pale blue for panels and highlights, grey for secondary text. The most conventional palette here, which is often the correct choice.
Misty Harbourcalm#0C4A6E #7DD3FC #E0F2FE #64748B #F8FAFCSame structure as Morning Dew shifted toward cyan. Reads slightly more technical and slightly less corporate.
Sunshine Skipperplayful#FDE68A #F472B6 #60A5FA #FB923C #1E293B4 brights held together by 1 dark slate. The slate is not optional: without it, nothing on the page has enough contrast to read.
Candy Popplayful#EC4899 #FBBF24 #22D3EE #A855F7 #FFFFFFHigh saturation across the board. Works when 1 colour is chosen as primary and the rest appear only in small quantities.
Juice Barplayful#F97316 #84CC16 #14B8A6 #F43F5E #FEF9C3Warm and cool brights against a pale yellow. Suits businesses with product variety where each line can take one colour.
Midnight Velvetluxurious#0C0A1F #7C3AED #E5CBA8 #FFFFFF #D4AF37Near-black base with violet as the brand colour and 2 metallics for detail. The gold works in small amounts only, and it rarely prints the way it looks on screen.
Emerald Oakluxurious#064E3B #065F46 #D4AF37 #F5F5DC #1F29372 greens close enough to layer without a hard edge, gold for detail, and a warm off-white for large areas. Traditional rather than modern.
Rose Noirluxurious#1A0F1F #C084FC #F9A8D4 #F5E9D8 #B45309A very dark plum base with pinks stepping up in lightness. The amber is a punctuation colour, not a second brand colour.
Eucalyptus and Claynatural#3F3F1B #A3A380 #D6CE93 #EFEBCE #7C3626A muted olive ramp from dark to pale, with terracotta as the only saturated colour. Low contrast by design, so check legibility before committing to it for body text.
Desert Terracottanatural#78350F #D97706 #FEF3C7 #84CC16 #292524Warm browns and amber against a near-black, with green as the accent. Reads outdoors and hands-on rather than clinical.
Forest Floornatural#14532D #166534 #BBF7D0 #FEF3C7 #78350F2 deep greens for structure, a pale green for panels, cream for large areas and brown for grounding. The most legible of the natural set.

Which mood suits which business

Mood is a shortcut, not a category. It describes the feeling a set of colours tends to produce, and the fit is worth sanity-checking against what your customers are actually deciding when they choose you.

  • Bold. Businesses that need to be noticed before they are understood: hospitality, fitness, events, anything competing for attention in a crowded street or feed.
  • Calm. Businesses selling reassurance rather than excitement: professional services, health, finance, and anywhere a customer is already slightly anxious.
  • Playful. Businesses whose customers are choosing with their mood: childcare, food, retail, creative services, and anything bought as a small treat.
  • Luxurious. Businesses where the price is the point: premium trades, jewellery, high-end hospitality, and services sold on craft rather than convenience.
  • Natural. Businesses whose story is materials, land or provenance: landscaping, produce, building, wellness, and anything selling on where it came from.

Before you commit to a palette

  1. Test it on your own material. Colours behave differently in a 5-swatch strip than they do on a page with text, a photograph and a logo on it.
  2. Check the contrast. Run every text-on-background pairing you intend to use through a contrast checker. Several palettes here are low-contrast by design.
  3. Look at it printed. Screens are backlit and printers are not. A colour that glows on a phone can look muddy on uncoated stock, which matters for anything from menus to printed collateral.
  4. Check your competitors. If the 3 businesses you are most often compared to all own a colour, taking a fourth one is usually a better decision than joining them.
  5. Write the values down. Record HEX for screen, RGB for digital artwork and CMYK for print, in the format set out in the guidelines structure guide. Colour drifts faster than any other part of a brand because every tool has its own picker.

What a generator cannot decide for you

A palette is a consequence of a positioning decision, not a substitute for one. The reason a professional-services firm and a childcare centre land in different places is not taste, it is who they are speaking to and what that person needs to feel before they make contact. That work sits in brand strategy, and it is what turns a set of nice colours into a brand identity that holds up across every surface.

If you want a palette built for your business rather than picked from a list, send the brief through the quote form. It goes to an experienced Australian brand design studio, which quotes on the actual scope.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Most small business brands are easier to run with 3 to 5: 1 dominant colour, 1 supporting colour, and 1 to 3 accents used sparingly. Fewer than 3 leaves you no way to create emphasis. More than 5 and consistency becomes a memory test. Every palette on this page is built to 5 so you can drop the ones you do not need.
Hex values are not copyrightable, so any combination on this page is free to use. The caution is competitive rather than legal: a handful of very well-known brands have strong colour associations in specific categories, so avoid landing on a near-identical scheme to a direct competitor in your own market. Check what the other businesses on your street or in your search results already own.
They have not been tested for contrast compliance, and we are not going to claim they have. They are starting points chosen by eye. Before you commit, run your intended text and background pairings through a contrast checker, because several palettes here are deliberately low-contrast and will fail for body text even though they work as brand colours.
Enough contrast between text and background to read comfortably, 1 colour clearly doing the job of primary rather than 3 competing, values that survive being printed as well as displayed, and a light and a dark that let you build layouts without inventing new colours later. A designer builds all of that in deliberately rather than picking colours that look good next to each other.

Ready for a real quote?

A tool gives you a starting range. A quote comes from a designer reading your actual brief. Send us the brief and we will pass it to an experienced Australian brand design studio. We aim to respond within 1 business day.

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