Yale Blue
 
About these coordinates     Color coordinates
Hex triplet#00356B
sRGBB (r, g, b)(0, 53, 107)
HSV (h, s, v)(210°, 100%, 42%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(22, 45, 254°)
SourceIdentity Guidelines
ISCC–NBS descriptorDeep blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Yale Blue is the dark blue color used in association with Yale University.

History

The flag in this painting of the Yale 1859 crew team is believed to be the first documented Yale Blue, though the photograph is in black and white.[1]

Since the 1850s, Yale Crew has rowed in blue uniforms,[2] and in 1894, "dark blue" was officially adopted as Yale's color, after half a century of the university being associated with green.[3] In 1901, this was amended to "dark blue of the shade known as the color of the University of Oxford",[4] although Oxford Blue, while only 2° different in hue, is now substantially darker than Yale Blue, with a brightness of 28% compared to Yale Blue's 42%. In 2005, University Printer John Gambell was asked to standardize the color.[2] He had characterized its spirit as "a strong, relatively dark blue, neither purple nor green, though it can be somewhat gray. It should be a color you would call blue."[3] A vault in the university secretary's office holds two scraps of silk, apocryphally from a bolt of cloth for academic robes, preserved as the first official Yale Blue.[2]

The university administration defines Yale Blue as a custom color whose closest approximation in the Pantone system is Pantone 289.[3][5] Yale Blue inks may be ordered from the Superior Printing Ink Co., formulas 6254 and 6255.[2]

Other uses

Yale Blue is one of the two official colors of Indiana State University,[6] the University of Mississippi,[7] and Southern Methodist University.[8]

Yale Blue is an official color of the University of California, Berkeley, adopted in 1868 by the university's founders, who were mostly Yale graduates.[9] However, UC Berkeley uses a slightly different shade, Pantone 282  , from that adopted by Yale.[10] The "Pomona Blue" (Pantone 2935  [11]) used by Pomona College is similar to Yale Blue and is a reference to the role of Yale alumni in the college's founding.[12]

The color is similar to Duke University's Duke Blue   as both are derived from prussian blue, where Pantone 289 remains an acceptable approximation.[13]

The official color "DCU Blue" of Dublin City University is Pantone 289  , very close to Yale Blue, but with no acknowledged connection.[14]

The zine produced by Yale's campus radio station WYBC is named Relatively Dark Blue Neither Purple Nor Green in reference to Gambell's description of the color.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Yale Blue: What's in a Color? | Yale Printing & Publishing Services".
  2. ^ a b c d "Kind of Blue". Yale Alumni Magazine. July–August 2010. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  3. ^ a b c Thompson, Ellen (October 1, 2002). "True Blue". The New Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  4. ^ "Yale University". The Intercollegiate Registry of Academic Costume. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
  5. ^ "Welcome". Office of the University Printer.
  6. ^ "About - Indiana State University". Archived from the original on April 3, 2012.
  7. ^ "Ole Miss Traditions: Red & Blue". University of Mississippi. October 1, 2002. Archived from the original on September 24, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  8. ^ "SMU SPIRIT AND TRADITIONS". Southern Methodist University. Archived from the original on February 11, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  9. ^ "Arrival Guide 2021-2022 - For International Students and Scholars" (PDF). University of California, Berkeley. 2021. p. 6.
  10. ^ "Brand Guidelines: Colors". UC Berkeley. Retrieved December 11, 2022.
  11. ^ "Graphic Standards Manual" (PDF). Pomona College. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
  12. ^ Lyon, E. Wilson (1977). The History of Pomona College, 1887–1969. Anaheim, California: The Castle Press. p. 42. OCLC 4114776.
  13. ^ "The origin of Duke Blue". Duke University Libraries. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
  14. ^ "Corporate Identity Guidelines Primary and secondary colour palettes". Dublin City University. Archived from the original on 10 January 2015.
  15. ^ "RDBNPNG". WYBC. Retrieved April 22, 2021.

External links

Shades of blue
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