Our colour palette

The colours shown on this page should not be used for colour matching, please refer to the current edition of the Pantone Colour Formula Guide. Pantone is a registered trademark of Pantone Inc. 

Using our colours

Less is more when it comes to using our bold colours, so avoid the use of lots of block colours, with no more than two colours as well as black and white, unless there are exceptional reasons to do so. For example, two contrasting colours on a poster is enough.

• Black, white and grey are the foundation colours for the palette. All colours work alongside these.
• Our bold colours can be used as lead colours or as accents with the greys.
• All of the colours can be used as solid blocks or transparent overlays.
• Scarlet and violet, though they no longer feature in the logo, are recognisably Essex and should be used in a more modern way.
• Text colour – black and white should be used predominately, but other colours from our palette can be used to add accents.
• When choosing images or taking new photo’s incorporating our bold colours can help your marketing content look like Essex and really make it pop, capturing your audience’s attention.
• You can use a gradient overlay or as duotones on imagery*, to give your image a pop of colour and Essex feel. See our recommended gradients. *Our graphic design team at CDS can advise on the correct application as the base image will need to be black and white for the effect to be applied correctly

Our colour combinations

We’ve done the work for you and come up with colour combinations that give effective colour contrast on your communications and marketing materials/content.

Choose from these combinations:

Applying colour gradients

The following six gradients give a good level of flexibility and can work as a set:

• Scarlet and Violet
• Violet and Turquoise
• Turquoise and Lime Green
• Lime Green and Yellow
• Yellow and Light or Dark Orange
• Light or Dark Orange and Scarlet

Colour treatments – duotone effect

Treatments can also be added to imagery – creating a layer-like duotone effect.

Use the same colour combinations as those in agreed gradients.

Using colour tints

• Colours are generally used at 100%.
• Tints must be used sparingly, as they can look old-fashioned, working to the spec 100% solid, 60% tint.
• Tints should never be used independently from full strength colours and should never be dominate in the design.
• Tints can be used with photography or solid backgrounds to create overlays of blocks of colours and can be used effectively as backgrounds in tables.