Aqualogic / Visuals / Colour
Colour.
The Aqualogic palette anchors the brand visually. Aqua Cyan brings the freshness and clarity of the strapline, Ink provides depth and authority, Sky is a softer support tone, and Paper is the neutral surface most copy sits on.
How to use the palette
- Ink (#0C2C3A) — primary text colour. Use for body, headings and on Paper backgrounds.
- Aqua Cyan (#00B6DB) — accent colour for links, calls to action, the strapline, infographics and selective highlights.
- Sky (#6AC2D8) — soft support tone for tinted surfaces, illustrations, secondary callouts. Avoid as a primary text colour: contrast on Paper is too low.
- Paper (#FAFBFF) — default background. Sits gently off pure white.
Primary palette
Paper
- HEX
- #FAFBFF
- RGB
- 250, 251, 255
- CMYK
- 2, 2, 0, 0
- Pantone
- White / 663 C
Default background. Sits gently off pure white.
Aqua Cyan
- HEX
- #00B6DB
- RGB
- 0, 182, 219
- CMYK
- 100, 17, 0, 14
- Pantone
- 312 C
Accent colour. Use for links, calls to action and the strapline.
Ink
- HEX
- #0C2C3A
- RGB
- 12, 44, 58
- CMYK
- 79, 24, 0, 77
- Pantone
- 539 C
Primary text colour. Use for body, headings and on Paper.
Sky
- HEX
- #6AC2D8
- RGB
- 106, 194, 216
- CMYK
- 51, 10, 0, 15
- Pantone
- 305 C
Soft support tone. Avoid for primary text on Paper.
Pantone references are closest Coated (C) matches. Confirm against a calibrated fan deck before going to print.
Extended palette
Two deep tones for dark-background work — graphics, SharePoint and Teams banners, and site-level applications such as Tŷ Dŵr and Tower Quays. They sit outside the primary palette on purpose: Aqua Cyan remains the Aqualogic blue, and these are surfaces for it to sit on rather than alternatives to it.
Dark Teal
- HEX
- #156082
- RGB
- 21, 96, 130
- CMYK
- 84, 26, 0, 49
- Pantone
- 308 C
Background fill only. Use white or Paper text on it. Do not pair with Aqua Cyan text — contrast is too low.
Dark Blue
- HEX
- #163E64
- RGB
- 22, 62, 100
- CMYK
- 78, 38, 0, 61
- Pantone
- 534 C
Background fill only, and the stronger of the two. The only extended tone Aqua Cyan can legibly sit on.
- Backgrounds only. Do not use either tone for the logo, for body copy or as an accent colour.
- Set text in Paper or white. Both tones are dark enough to carry reversed text comfortably.
- Never against Ink. Both are too close to Ink (#0C2C3A) in depth to separate — and too close to each other to be used as a pair.
- Aqua Cyan works on Dark Blue only. On Dark Teal the contrast is too low to be legible.
Grayscale
Cloud
- HEX
- #EDEFF7
- RGB
- 237, 239, 247
- CMYK
- 4, 3, 0, 3
- Pantone
- Cool Gray 1 C
Smoke
- HEX
- #D3D6E0
- RGB
- 211, 214, 224
- CMYK
- 6, 4, 0, 12
- Pantone
- Cool Gray 2 C
Steel
- HEX
- #BCBFCC
- RGB
- 188, 191, 204
- CMYK
- 8, 6, 0, 20
- Pantone
- Cool Gray 4 C
Space
- HEX
- #9DA2B3
- RGB
- 157, 162, 179
- CMYK
- 12, 9, 0, 30
- Pantone
- Cool Gray 6 C
Graphite
- HEX
- #6E7180
- RGB
- 110, 113, 128
- CMYK
- 14, 12, 0, 50
- Pantone
- Cool Gray 9 C
Arsenic
- HEX
- #40424D
- RGB
- 64, 66, 77
- CMYK
- 17, 14, 0, 70
- Pantone
- Cool Gray 11 C
Phantom
- HEX
- #1E1E24
- RGB
- 30, 30, 36
- CMYK
- 17, 17, 0, 86
- Pantone
- Black 6 C
Black
- HEX
- #000000
- RGB
- 0, 0, 0
- CMYK
- 0, 0, 0, 100
- Pantone
- Black 6 C
Accessibility
Every text-and-background pairing used in production should pass WCAG 2.1 AA: a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text or UI components. The matrix below shows the ratio for each brand colour against each background. Aim for AA on small body copy and AAA where possible on critical reading.
| Text on background | Paper | Aqua Cyan | Ink | Dark Teal | Dark Blue | Phantom | Black |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper | 1.00:1Fail | 2.33:1Fail | 14.13:1Pass AAA | 6.71:1Pass AA | 10.65:1Pass AAA | 16.04:1Pass AAA | 20.31:1Pass AAA |
| Aqua Cyan | 2.33:1Fail | 1.00:1Fail | 6.06:1Pass AA | 2.88:1Fail | 4.57:1Pass AA | 6.88:1Pass AA | 8.71:1Pass AAA |
| Ink | 14.13:1Pass AAA | 6.06:1Pass AA | 1.00:1Fail | 2.11:1Fail | 1.33:1Fail | 1.13:1Fail | 1.44:1Fail |
| Sky | 1.97:1Fail | 1.18:1Fail | 7.18:1Pass AAA | 3.41:1Pass AA large only | 5.41:1Pass AA | 8.15:1Pass AAA | 10.32:1Pass AAA |
Quick guide: cells marked Pass AAA are safe everywhere; Pass AAis the production minimum; Pass AA large only means use at headline sizes or above (24 px / 18.66 px bold); Fail means do not use that combination for text.
Print and digital
For digital work, use HEX. For print, use CMYK (uncoated stocks tend toward duller, more saturated equivalents; check the proof). For brand-critical print runs, request Pantone matches against a fan deck rather than calculated equivalents. RGB values are provided for software that needs them.