Harvard
The Harvard University brand palette as published in the Harvard SEAS brand style guide (the most accessible authoritative source for Harvard's core institutional Crimson and supporting palette). Crimson (#A51C30) is the dominant institutional colour; the core palette adds saturated reds, greens, blues, yellows, turquoises, and purples that pair with Crimson and Black to produce the editorial voice across Harvard's many surfaces.
16 swatches 17 light roles 17 dark roles
Swatches
crimson
#A51C30
Harvard's institutional crimson — primary brand colour.
black
#1E1E1E
Primary text and dark surfaces.
white
#FFFFFF
Primary canvas in light mode.
grey
#93A1AD
Cool institutional grey — secondary surface.
red
#ED1B34
Saturated accent red — digital emphasis.
salmon
#EC8F9C
Pastel salmon — pairs with Crimson on light surfaces.
green
#4DB848
Mid-green — success / positive data-viz.
lime-green
#CBDB2A
Bright lime — illustration accent.
blue
#4E88C7
Mid-blue — supporting cool tone, links.
sky-blue
#95B5DF
Pale sky — soft cool surface tint.
warm-yellow
#FCB315
Warm gold — warning / highlight.
yellow
#FFDE2D
Bright yellow — editorial highlight.
turquoise
#00AAAD
Saturated turquoise — accent.
aquamarine
#77CED9
Pale aquamarine — illustration tint.
purple
#946EB7
Mid-purple — accent.
lavender
#BB89CA
Pale lavender — illustration tint.
Mode role mappings
Light mode (17 roles)
accent
→ crimson accent-hover
→ red background
→ white border
→ grey error
→ red link
→ blue link-hover
→ crimson primary
→ crimson primary-hover
→ red success
→ green surface
→ grey surface-elevated
→ white text-primary
→ black text-secondary
→ black text-tertiary
→ grey warning
→ warm-yellow warning-hover
→ yellow Dark mode (17 roles)
accent
→ salmon accent-hover
→ crimson background
→ black border
→ grey error
→ red link
→ sky-blue link-hover
→ blue primary
→ crimson primary-hover
→ red success
→ lime-green surface
→ grey surface-elevated
→ grey text-primary
→ white text-secondary
→ grey text-tertiary
→ grey warning
→ warm-yellow warning-hover
→ yellow Provenance
- Source
- https://seas.harvard.edu/office-communications/brand-style-guide/color-palette
- License
Proprietary — All Rights Reserved (Harvard trademarks)- Attribution
- The President and Fellows of Harvard College — palette captured from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences brand-style colour palette page, which publishes the institutional Crimson (#A51C30) consistent with Harvard's central trademark guidance. "Harvard," "Veritas," the Harvard shield, and the Harvard wordmark are registered trademarks of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
- Imported
-
2026-05-19 - Notes
- trademark.harvard.edu (the primary central reference cited in the task brief) returned HTTP 403 / blocked WebFetch. The Harvard SEAS brand-style page publishes Crimson #A51C30 — the canonical institutional value used by Harvard's marketing and communications work, and consistent with Harvard's widely-cited brand colour code. Crimson is the institutional anchor; the core palette colours are documented for editorial accent and data-viz, with Harvard's published guidance that "Crimson should be the dominant color for materials, with the primary color palette providing accents."