Lead Dark sets the weight of the palette in trust and stability, and Dragonfly Green is the swatch that breaks rank: a single green that stops the set reading as one note. Lead Dark to Opal spans 76 points of lightness, so the palette can carry its own hierarchy without reaching for a second one. Amber and Lead Dark sit on opposite sides of the temperature line, which is the tension the palette runs on and the pair to hold apart.
Lead Dark a deep navy or midnight blue, trust deepened into authority and gravity.
Cobalt an electric or cobalt blue: trust with real conviction, confident rather than passive.
Amber signals warmth, approachability, and creative energy, friendlier than red, louder than yellow.
Dragonfly Green signals growth, balance, and permission, the color of go, of nature, of money in Western contexts.
Opal a peach or apricot tint, all the friendliness of orange with none of the volume.
Nature set loose in iron and glass - Art Nouveau dissolved the straight line into whiplash curves, tendrils, and organic ornament, from Victor Horta's Brussels townhouses to Hector Guimard's Paris Métro entrances and Gaudí's molten Catalan facades.
Explore the full Art Nouveau style guideIts decade on the timeline · 1890s