Should the brand palette stay at five colors or collapse to three?¶
Move from the R1 palette (Brunswick Green, Ivory, Himalaya, plus Slice and Black/White as accents) to the R2 palette (Brunswick Green, Ivory, Himalaya — three colors, no black, no pure white, no Slice).
At a glance¶
| Decided | 2024-06 |
| Decided by | Haley + Trevor |
| Status | Active. The R2 palette is the lock. |
| Owner | Haley |
The question¶
By spring 2024 the R1 palette was being applied to early product samples, packaging concepts, and the Brand Guidelines deck. Does the brand want a five-color palette with more range, or a three-color palette with more discipline?
The options considered¶
Option A — Keep R1 (five colors)¶
More range for design surfaces — packaging, social, web, product variants. Slice gives a brighter punctuation; Black gives a "serious" anchor; pure white gives technical flexibility (embroidery thread, dieline templates).
The argument: as the line grows and the marketing surfaces multiply, a fuller palette gives the brand more vocabulary without going off-brand.
Option B — Collapse to three (Brunswick Green, Ivory, Himalaya)¶
Lock the brand to three colors with clear roles: Green is the anchor and wordmark, Ivory is the everyday neutral, Himalaya is the soft accent. No black as a brand color (black exists as a production color for the vest fabric, but never as a brand-system color). No pure white. No Slice.
The argument: discipline is the brand's actual differentiator. The references (Hill House, Sézane, Doên) all run tight palettes. The customer's defining anxiety is the brand that looks like it's trying — and a brand whose palette has room to wander looks like it's trying.
The call¶
Option B. Three colors, locked.
The reasoning¶
Discipline reads as confidence. A premium brand whose palette is tight reads like the brand knows what it is. A premium brand whose palette is broad reads like the brand is hedging. The customer in Customer Research § 4 is performing put-togetherness — she'll be drawn to brands that perform it back.
Black is a trap. Black anywhere in a brand system attracts more black. Once Black is in the palette, it shows up on hangtags, in packaging, in social templates, in the website footer — and the brand quietly becomes a green-and-black brand. Removing Black from the palette is the only reliable way to keep that drift from happening. Brunswick Green plays the dark-anchor role; that's enough.
Slice was solving a problem we didn't have. Slice (the brighter green) was originally there to add energy to the palette. Once we committed to the editorial direction in the Brand Voice work, the brand's energy comes from the writing and the photography, not from a punchy accent color. Slice would have undercut the calm.
What would change our mind¶
- A planned product launch in a category (kids' patterned product, swim, novelty) where three colors genuinely won't carry the design
- A photography direction shift that needs a brighter accent to feel right
- Real customer feedback (not internal hunches) that the palette feels limited
In all three cases, the move would be to expand intentionally with a documented R3 palette — not to quietly let other colors back in.
Related¶
- Color Palette — the canonical R2 reference page
- Brand Voice — the editorial direction that made Slice redundant
- Source files: R2 Pantone Draft (June 2024) in Drive
Branding/Brand Guidelines/Color Palette/