--- name: color-palette-brief description: "Generates a detailed color palette brief with named colors, hex codes, rationale, and usage guidance for a media project's visual identity — show artwork, editorial imagery, website, or social media." status: stable category: image-prompting subcategory: art-direction version: 1.0 eval_score: 4.4 tags: [image-prompting, art-direction, color, palette, visual-identity] --- # Color Palette Brief ## What This Skill Does Generates a detailed color palette brief with named colors, hex codes, rationale, and usage guidance for a media project's visual identity — show artwork, editorial imagery, website, or social media. ## When To Use This Skill - You are establishing the visual identity of a new podcast, YouTube channel, newsletter, or publication and need to define a color system - You want to brief a designer on the color direction for a project with enough specificity that they can build the palette without a conversation - You need to maintain color consistency across AI-generated images, social posts, and designed assets - You have a vague color direction in mind ("something warm and earthy") and need it translated into specific, usable values ## What You Need To Provide **Required:** - Project name and a brief description of what it is - The emotional tone and personality of the project (how should it feel?) - The audience (who is it for?) **Optional:** - Any colors you already know you want (even approximate — "a dark teal," "a warm off-white") - Named reference brands, publications, or shows whose palette you want to approach or diverge from - The platform(s) where the palette will be used (web, print, video, social media) - Whether you need dark mode and light mode variants - Any colors to avoid and why ## How the Assistant Approaches This 1. Derives the palette from the project's personality and audience: what colors communicate the right feeling, and what associations must be avoided 2. Builds a structured system: primary color (the identity anchor), secondary color (support and contrast), accent color (for calls to action and highlights), neutral/background colors (light and dark), and a danger or caution color (for use sparingly) 3. Provides each color with: a descriptive name, a hex code, an RGB value, and a one-sentence usage note 4. Explains the palette's logic — why these specific colors were chosen and what they communicate together 5. Provides prompt-ready color language for AI image generation: phrases that consistently produce images within the palette 6. Closes with a "Next Step" note: the first practical action after receiving the palette (test the hex codes in your design tool, run visual-identity-prompt to build the full visual system, or run cover-image-pipeline to produce the first asset using these colors) ## Output Format - Structure: Palette Overview → Color-by-Color Breakdown → Palette Rationale → Usage Guidelines → AI Prompt Color Language - Each color presented with: descriptive name, hex code, RGB value, usage note - Palette rationale in 2–3 paragraphs explaining the color relationships and emotional logic - Usage guidelines: specific rules for which color is dominant, how accent is used, what combinations to avoid - AI prompt color language: 3–5 phrase variations for different contexts (light scene, dark scene, neutral scene) - Output ends with a "Next Step" note: how to test the palette, whether to run visual-identity-prompt next, and which asset to produce first using these colors ## Quality Criteria - [ ] Each color has a specific hex code, not a vague description - [ ] The palette rationale explains the emotional logic of the color choices, not just what they are - [ ] Usage guidelines include at least one specific prohibition (e.g., "do not use accent on backgrounds — only on text and interactive elements") - [ ] The AI prompt color language phrases are specific enough to reliably constrain image generation - [ ] The palette has internal contrast — a functioning palette needs both light and dark values - [ ] Output includes at least one concrete next action the user can take immediately (test hex codes in a design tool, run visual-identity-prompt, or produce the first asset using cover-image-pipeline) ## Example ### Input - **Project:** *The Margin* — newsletter and podcast about labor and economics - **Emotional tone:** Grounded, unsentimental, quietly political. Serious without being heavy. Accessible without being light. - **Audience:** Educated adults 28–50, reads long-form journalism - **Platform:** Web (newsletter), podcast platforms, social media (Instagram, Twitter/X) - **Reference to approach:** The New York Review of Books, n+1 magazine, The Atlantic print edition - **Reference to avoid:** CNN, tech startup corporate blue - **Known preference:** A warm off-white background rather than pure white ### Output --- **COLOR PALETTE BRIEF — THE MARGIN** *Visual identity colors · Version 1.0* --- **PALETTE OVERVIEW** A five-color system built around warm earth tones anchored by a deep ink near-black. The palette communicates seriousness and accessibility without institutional weight — it sits in the tradition of mid-century print journalism rather than digital media. --- **COLOR BREAKDOWN** **1. Ink / Primary** - Name: *Press Ink* - Hex: `#1C1A17` - RGB: 28, 26, 23 - Usage: Primary text, headers, dominant dark surface. The anchor of every composition. Never replaced by pure black. **2. Warm Off-White / Background** - Name: *Newsprint* - Hex: `#F5F0E8` - RGB: 245, 240, 232 - Usage: Primary background color for web and print. The slight warmth avoids clinical brightness without reading as aged or yellowed. **3. Rust / Accent** - Name: *Factory Rust* - Hex: `#B84C24` - RGB: 184, 76, 36 - Usage: Accent only — calls to action, active links, pull quotes, visual emphasis. Use sparingly. Never as a background color on large areas. **4. Slate / Secondary** - Name: *Archive Grey* - Hex: `#5C5850` - RGB: 92, 88, 80 - Usage: Secondary text (captions, metadata, secondary UI elements), borders, dividers. The tonal midpoint between Ink and Newsprint. **5. Deep Ochre / Warm Dark** - Name: *Late Shift* - Hex: `#3D2E1A` - RGB: 61, 46, 26 - Usage: Dark mode background; warm dark sections and banner areas. Warmer than Ink — used for large dark areas where pure near-black would feel too cold. --- **PALETTE RATIONALE** The palette is a print palette translated to screen. Press Ink and Newsprint create the fundamental relationship: warm near-black on warm off-white, the combination that print journalism has used for 150 years because it is legible, authoritative, and unhurried. The warmth in both colors prevents the clinical cold that pure black-on-white creates at screen luminosity. Factory Rust is the editorial choice that distinguishes *The Margin* from its reference publications. Where The Atlantic uses blue and The New York Review of Books uses grey, rust is the color of working materials — iron oxide, aged metal, brick — and it communicates industrial origin without irony. It is used sparingly enough to retain its emphasis function. Archive Grey is the palette's workhorse: it handles everything that isn't primary text or primary background without competing with either. Late Shift gives the palette a warm dark mode and ensures that when the visual language goes dark, it retains the warmth of the overall system. --- **USAGE GUIDELINES** - **Dominant color:** Newsprint. 60% of any composition's area should be Newsprint in light contexts. - **Structural color:** Press Ink for all text. Never use Archive Grey for body text — only for secondary information. - **Accent rule:** Factory Rust appears on no more than 5–10% of any composition's visual area. Never use as a background for text larger than 14pt. - **Avoid:** Factory Rust + Late Shift combination (clash). Newsprint as a text color (illegible on most backgrounds). Pure #FFFFFF or #000000 anywhere in the system — these break the warmth of the palette. - **Dark mode:** Late Shift background, Newsprint text, Factory Rust accent. Archive Grey for secondary text. --- **AI PROMPT COLOR LANGUAGE** For any AI-generated image within *The Margin* visual system: - **Light editorial context:** `"warm off-white background, muted desaturated palette with warm earth tones, ink-dark primary elements, no bright colors, no pure white"` - **Dark editorial context:** `"deep warm dark background, near-black with amber undertones, rust accent elements, muted warm tones, no cold blues or pure blacks"` - **Documentary/photographic context:** `"warm film palette, slightly desaturated, earth tones, grain texture, warm shadows with amber undertones, no digital sharpness"` - **Neutral context:** `"warm neutral palette, mid-tones, ochre and slate greys, no saturated colors, documentary aesthetic"` --- ## Known Limitations - Hex codes provided here are developed from qualitative inputs — they are a strong starting point, but final color values should be confirmed by a designer who can test them across different screens, print outputs, and accessibility standards - Color accessibility (WCAG compliance for web) is not checked in this output — the user must verify that text colors meet contrast ratios for their platform; the Press Ink / Newsprint pairing typically passes but should be confirmed with an accessibility checker - AI image generators interpret color instructions loosely — the prompt color language provided here is directional, not precise; exact hex color matching is not possible in current AI image generation - This skill produces a color brief, not a complete brand style guide; the full visual identity (typography, spacing, iconography, logo) requires additional design work ## Related Skills - [mood-board-brief](../mood-board-brief/SKILL.md) - [visual-identity-prompt](../visual-identity-prompt/SKILL.md) - [cover-image-pipeline](../../workflows/cover-image-pipeline/SKILL.md)