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Ishman Components LLP · Brand Foundations

The Colour System

One spectrum, three roles, two strays retired. Every IC asset — from a brochure to a slide to a LinkedIn post — draws from this one set of colours, so the whole company finally looks like one company.

01The idea behind it

Your brochure already loved a blue → purple → magenta sweep. That isn't a mess — it's a gradient, and it can be your signature. We simply gave each band a job: blue leads, purple bridges, magenta accents. Cool greys do the quiet heavy lifting. The red car and the coffee tones were one-offs, so they step out of the brand.

02The 60 · 30 · 10 rule

The single most useful rule in colour. A balanced layout is roughly 60% neutral (the calm base), 30% primary (your brand presence), and 10% accent (the deliberate pop that pulls the eye). Most amateur design fails by flooding the page with accent. Restraint is what reads as "premium."

60% · Neutrals
30% · IC Blue
10%
Neutral base · IC Blue presence · Magenta accent

03Primary — the IC Blue family

Blue is your anchor: it's in the logo, and it carries trust, precision, engineering — the literal blue "nervous system" running through your cover. This is the colour people should associate with IC. Note it isn't one blue but a scale — you need light-to-dark versions for backgrounds, text, and states.

on white
IC Navy
#102A56
Dark backgrounds, headings
core
IC Blue
#1763C6
The signature colour
highlight
IC Sky
#3CA0E8
Highlights, gradient top
tint
Blue Tint
#A9CCEE
Soft fills, charts
wash
Blue Wash
#E3EEFA
Panels, callouts
To verify: these are matched to the logo by eye. If you have the original logo file (AI/SVG/EPS), share it and I'll lock the exact hex so the system and the mark are identical.

04Accent — IC Magenta

Pulled straight from your brochure. This is your energy colour — "limitless, future-facing." Its power comes from rarity: a button, a key number, one highlighted word. The moment magenta covers half a page, it stops being an accent and becomes noise.

accent
IC Magenta
#C13B72
CTAs, key emphasis
deep
Magenta Deep
#98305A
Hover / pressed
tint
Magenta Tint
#E8A6C2
Soft accent fills
bridge
IC Indigo (bridge)
#3A2C5E
Gradients only — never flat

05Neutrals — the quiet 60%

The colours nobody notices and everything depends on. Cool greys (not warm/coffee) keep IC in the engineering, tech-forward world. Text, backgrounds, lines, structure all live here.

text
Ink
#14161C
Primary text
2nd text
Slate
#4A5160
Secondary text
muted
Mist
#9AA3B2
Captions, muted
lines
Cloud
#E6E9EF
Dividers, borders
bg
Paper
#F4F6F9
Light background

06The signature gradient

Your one hero device — the blue-to-magenta spectrum your brochure already used, now defined exactly so it's identical every time. Use it for covers, title slides, and big moments. One gradient, used consistently, becomes instantly recognisable as "IC."

IC Navy → IC Blue → Indigo → Magenta

07How to use it

Do

  • Let neutrals carry most of the page.
  • Use IC Blue as the dependable lead colour.
  • Save magenta for one thing per view.
  • Use the gradient for hero moments only.
  • Keep purple inside gradients.

Don't

  • Flood a layout with magenta.
  • Set body text in magenta or blue.
  • Use flat purple as a big background.
  • Add new colours "just for variety."
  • Mix in red or coffee tones.

08Legibility — the rule that protects readers

Colour must never cost readability. Text needs enough contrast against its background (the WCAG AA standard). Quick guide for the common pairings:

White on NavyStrong — body & headings ✓ AA
White on BlueGood for large/bold text ✓ AA Large
Ink on PaperIdeal for reading ✓ AAA
White on MagentaButtons / large only △ not body
Magenta on WhiteAccent words only △ not body
Mist on WhiteCaptions only, never body △ low

09Two faces, on purpose

IC runs a deliberate two-track brand (brand architecture). This cool blue system is the external face — customers, suppliers, marketing. A separate warm system is the internal face. Each stays in its lane; they never mix on the same asset. One colour leaves the brand entirely.

External — IC Blue (this system)
Brochures, marketing, anything customer- or supplier-facing. Cool, precise, engineering-forward.
Internal — Coffee (kept, decided 2026)
Training decks, culture, people-facing materials. Warm and human. Defined in Training-Design-System.md.
Retired — Red / orange
From the red x-ray car. Reserve red strictly for safety/warning signals — never as a brand colour.

Tip: click any swatch to copy its hex.

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