Gallery
Open in tool →Near-monochrome with one burnt-orange highlight — an art director's default because it never competes with the work.
Color
#c5481b
#c5481b
hex
#c5481brgb
rgb(197, 72, 27)hsl
hsl(16, 76%, 44%)oklch
oklch(0.568 0.169 38.3)Closest name: Bolognese (#bb4400)Relative luminance 0.1658
Colors that go with #c5481b
Charcoal, Sea Green and Steel 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 body-text near-black for #c5481b: its slight blue cast keeps type crisp beside a warm colour where pure #000 looks heavy.
Sea Green #2e8b57
triadicshippedSea Green completes a triad with #c5481b — three hues spaced evenly round the wheel, the classic way to get energy into a palette without a clash.
Steel Blue #4682b4
split-complementshippedSteel Blue is a split-complement of #c5481b: nearly opposite, so it still pops against it, without the vibrating edge of a true complement.
Amber #ffbf00
shippedAmber is paired with #c5481b in 7 real palettes, including Trailhead and McDonald's's brand system, as the accent.
Blue #0000ff
shipped8 real palettes, including Tim Hortons's brand system and Doordash's brand system put Blue beside #c5481b, as the accent.
Cadet Blue #5f9ea0
shippedDesigners have shipped Cadet Blue with #c5481b: 4 real palettes, including Clean Beauty and Diner, as the lead colour.
Champagne #f7e7ce
shipped4 real palettes, including BrandSweets's brand system and Woodsmoke put Champagne beside #c5481b.
Cobalt Blue #0047ab
shippedDesigners have shipped Cobalt Blue with #c5481b: 5 real palettes, including Behance's brand system and Walgreens's brand system, as the supporting colour.
Real palettes that use #c5481b
Tints & shades
Harmonies
Contrast
| #c5481b as text | Ratio | AA | AA large | AAA | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aaon white | 4.86:1 | pass | pass | fail |
|
Aaon black | 4.32:1 | fail | pass | fail |
Fixes keep hue and saturation and move lightness only, so the suggestion stays on-brand. Ratios are symmetric: the same numbers apply with #c5481b as the background.
Brands using this color
No public brand in the corpus uses this exact color yet. Extract a brand to add one.
Palettes built around it
Trailhead
Open in tool →Rust, pine and sun — high-visibility earth tones that read at a distance and on a trail sign.
Garnet
Open in tool →Garnet, carnelian and citrine on a wine-black — the warm jewel set for spirits, theatre and jewellery itself.
Fonts for this mood
#c5481b reads as warm, vivid, playful. The font library is tagged with the same vocabulary:
mcpConnect your agent — build around #c5481b
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 #c5481b and generate a 5-color palette that keeps it as the primary; give me the /palettes/new link
tool url
/palettes/new/c5481b-c4ab9c-62cbb4-2d291f-f1e9eb?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