Pastel Pop
Open in tool →Pastels pushed to the saturated end — pink, sky and lemon — for brands that want soft AND loud.
Color
#281e2a
#281e2a
hex
#281e2argb
rgb(40, 30, 42)hsl
hsl(290, 17%, 14%)oklch
oklch(0.252 0.026 320.7)Closest name: Black Velvet (#222233)Relative luminance 0.0155
Colors that go with #281e2a
Charcoal, Amber and Blue lead the list. Each partner is a real named colour with the reason it works — a wheel relationship, a neutral that carries it, or a pairing lifted from a palette or brand system that actually shipped — and every pair opens in the palette tool.
Charcoal #36454f
neutralshippedCharcoal is the text near-black that reads cleanly against #281e2a without the hard edge of pure #000.
Amber #ffbf00
shippedAmber is paired with #281e2a in 18 real palettes, including Wikipedia's brand system and Google's brand system, as the accent.
Blue #0000ff
shipped23 real palettes, including Rolex's brand system and Bumble's brand system put Blue beside #281e2a, as the accent.
Blue Violet #8a2be2
shippedBlue Violet is paired with #281e2a in 10 real palettes, including ClickUp's brand system and Yahoo's brand system, as the lead colour.
Blush Pink #e8b4b8
shipped6 real palettes, including Graphite Mono and Blush put Blush Pink beside #281e2a, as the accent.
Brown #a52a2a
shipped5 real palettes, including Woodsmoke and Typewriter put Brown beside #281e2a, as the accent.
Burlywood #deb887
shippedBurlywood is paired with #281e2a in 6 real palettes, including Kiln and Chalkboard, as the accent.
Cadet Blue #5f9ea0
shippedDesigners have shipped Cadet Blue with #281e2a: 10 real palettes, including Dusk and SoFi's brand system, as the supporting colour.
Real palettes that use #281e2a
Tints & shades
Harmonies
Contrast
| #281e2a as text | Ratio | AA | AA large | AAA | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aaon white | 16.04:1 | pass | pass | pass | Passes AAA — no fix needed. |
Aaon black | 1.31:1 | fail | fail | fail |
Fixes keep hue and saturation and move lightness only, so the suggestion stays on-brand. Ratios are symmetric: the same numbers apply with #281e2a as the background.
Brands using this color
Palettes built around it
Fonts for this mood
#281e2a reads as cool, muted, dark. The font library is tagged with the same vocabulary:
mcpConnect your agent — build around #281e2a
live endpointPoint any MCP client at the shared colors endpoint and your agent gets the same engine as this page — direct_palette, edit_direction, check_palette, check_contrast — read-only, no key. Every direction it proposes comes with a /colors/d/… link: open it, lock what you like, paste the link back, and the agent edits rather than re-rolls.
endpoint
https://mcp.brandsweets.com/colors/mcpclaude mcp add --transport http brandsweets-colors https://mcp.brandsweets.com/colors/mcp
try this prompt
›analyze #281e2a and generate a 5-color palette that keeps it as the primary; give me the /palettes/new link
tool url
/palettes/new/281e2a-bf9fc1-a6cb62-2d1f29-ece9f1?lock=0&style=vibrantWant the agent to remember your picks and write them into a living brand? Create a free BrandSweets workspace.
Machine-readable: color.md