Branding
Color Usage Guidelines

The strength of the Northwestern Engineering palette is its consistency. Adhering to these color guidelines will result in clean, comprehensive communications that are instantly recognizable as Northwestern’s. 

To keep the color palette consistent across different media, be sure to use the right color codes in your files:

  • Use Pantone color codes for any commercially-printed materials.
  • Use CMYK values for materials intended for print. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black: the inks used by printers. Make sure any image you intend to print is in "CMYK" mode and that the proper color values are selected.
  • Use RGB color values when creating images intended for viewing ONLY on computer screens (not for print). RGB stands for the red, green, and blue light used by computer monitors.
  • Use Hex codes to create the desired colors on webpages. It's important to use hex codes properly in your webpages' style sheets or HTML code. Hex codes are interpreted by web browsers to display colors for things like fonts, backgrounds, and table borders

Primary Color Palette

Color Name/Pantone CMYK RGB Hex
Northwestern Purple PMS 268 82, 98, 00, 12 078, 042, 132 #4E2A84
Purple 90 74, 88, 00, 11 091, 059, 140
Purple 80 66, 78, 00, 10 104, 076, 150
Purple 70 57, 69, 00, 08 118, 093, 160
Purple 60 49, 59, 00, 07 131, 110, 170 #836EAA
Purple 50 41, 49, 00, 06 147, 128, 182
Purple 40 33, 39, 00, 05 164, 149, 195
Purple 30 25, 29, 00, 04 182, 172, 209 #B6ACD1
Purple 20 16, 20, 00, 02 204, 196, 223
Purple 10 08, 10, 00, 01 228, 224, 238 #E4E0EE
Purple 160 87, 99, 30, 65 029, 002, 053
Purple 150 87, 99, 25, 56 038, 008, 065
Purple 140 86, 98, 20, 47 048, 016, 078
Purple 130 85, 98, 15, 38 056, 023, 090
Purple 120 82, 98, 10, 30 064, 031, 104 #401F68
Purple 110 83, 98, 05, 21 072, 036, 118

Gray Palette

(for one color printing)

Color Name Tint of Black Hex
Rich Black 100 100% (solid)
Rich Black 90 90%
Rich Black 80 80% #342F2E
Rich Black 70 70%
Rich Black 60 60%
Rich Black 50 50% #716C6B
Rich Black 40 40%
Rich Black 30 30%
Rich Black 20 20% #BBB8B8
Rich Black 10 10% #D8D6D6

Secondary Color Palette

Although our color system is monochromatic, we understand that, in certain instances, another color will need to be used. For those circumstances, we have developed a set of secondary colors. These colors should be used rarely and sparingly. Under no circumstances should any of them become the predominant color for a school, center, institute, or department.

The secondary color palette can be found at the Northwestern brand website.