White Ground sets the weight of the palette in purity and simplicity, and Primary Red is the swatch that breaks rank: a single red that stops the set reading as one note. Saturation averages 76 percent with Primary Yellow at the top, which is loud enough that the palette will fight anything else on the page. Primary Red and Primary Blue sit on opposite sides of the temperature line, which is the tension the palette runs on and the pair to hold apart.
White Ground reads as purity and openness, the color of empty space, clarity, and things left deliberately unresolved.
Primary Red reads as pure adrenaline: alarm, desire, the color of things that move fast.
Primary Yellow an electric, high-visibility yellow: caution and euphoria share the same wavelength here.
Primary Blue an electric or cobalt blue: trust with real conviction, confident rather than passive.
Primary Green an emerald or kelly green: vitality turned all the way up, confident and alive.
80s Italian design movement with geometric patterns, terrazzo, and bold colors
Explore the full Memphis style guideIts decade on the timeline · 1980s