EdCity · Palette study · Option C · Curious Intelligence

Bright Field, Two Points

A calm, legible field built around refraction: blue, cyan, lavender, peach and pink behave like light planes on a cool near-white ground, and where two overlap a third hue appears — the same idea seen from more than one angle. Two points, pink and green, are held back for meaning: an opportunity surfacing, a decision confirmed. Colour stays quiet so that when it appears, it explains something. Block size shows each colour’s share of a typical surface.

~28 blue (the brand anchor, the largest plane) ~50 refraction field (paper · sky · lavender · peach · soft pink · ink) ~8 points (signal pink + green)

How to read it

A field of several light planes overlapping, the way dichroic glass shifts hue as you move past it. Blue stays the brand anchor — the largest plane and the colour of action — while the other planes refract around it. The layout mirrors how the colours divide a screen — it isn’t the identity itself.

Blue, refracted

Main Blue is the brand’s blue here, as in every EdCity palette: it carries primary actions and links and holds the largest share of the field. Navigation and framing are shared with the field tones below, so blue reads as light passing through. Light and airy, so the interface reads open. It is not dark enough for body text on white — Ink does that.

The refraction field

Near-white ground plus four pale planes — cyan, lavender, peach, pink — standing in for the angles of a single light source. Lavender is a full field colour: a surface a view can sit on as well as a tone inside a blend. Peach is kept for family and home — the parent’s view, a take-home suggestion, a family-participation resource — so warmth appears where learning leaves the classroom. Overlap two of them (translucent panels, layered cards) and a third hue should appear where they cross — that overlap is the "refracted possibilities" idea, not decoration on top of it.

The two points

Signal Pink marks an opportunity surfacing. Signal Green is the brand’s green in this palette, carried as a vivid accent: something confirmed, a step complete, a connection made. Both are small in area but used at full strength, so green reads as a powerful point; they do not appear together in one view unless one of them is a state changing to the other. Neither is body text. Colour is never the only signal: every pink or green mark carries a label or icon too, so the meaning still lands for a colour-blind reader or in a screenshot with the colour stripped out.

Where this sits

Curious but grounded. The field stays light and ordered, so the page reads as trustworthy first; colour gathers only where there is something to discover — a relationship, a reason, a next step. It should feel like possibility opening up, never like a gradient wallpaper or a sci-fi data cloud.

What it’s for

Moments that explain: why a suggestion was made, how a need connects to a resource, what changed after a decision. Daily screens lean on paper, ink and blue; the refraction field and the two points come in where the product shows its reasoning.

Two Points & Light

Two vivid points and a set of light gradients carry the energy. Pink for an opportunity opening, green for a step completed. One point per moment; one gradient surface per screen.

on paper
Calm mesh Cyan through blue to pink and peach — light and quiet, for ambient backgrounds and empty states. linear 105° · #8CE7F2 → #5692FF → #F8CCF6 → #FCDCC6
Reveal Blue into cyan into signal pink — for a hero, onboarding, and the moment an opportunity opens. linear 100° · #3B78F0 → #7FD3F5 → #F35BEC
Spectrum The full range, pink to green through peach and blue. Campaign surfaces only — never behind product content. linear 100° · #F35BEC → #FCDCC6 → #5692FF → #12E27E

Bridge tone — gradients only

Mint #9DF2C4

Mint carries paper into green. It lives inside a blend, not as flat colour. Lavender also appears in the field above as a surface of its own.

Use a point / gradient for

  • The moment an opportunity surfaces (pink)
  • A step completed or confirmed (green)
  • Onboarding and first run
  • Marketing and campaign heroes
  • Loading and transition states
  • Ambient background behind an empty screen

Never

  • Both points in one view, unless one is changing into the other
  • A point as body text or a large fill
  • Navigation, headers, sidebars, cards
  • More than one gradient surface in a view
  • The spectrum gradient behind product content
  • The daily teacher screens — dial the points right back

Motion: gradients drift slowly or reveal on load. A point may pulse once when it appears — never continuously — and it honours reduced-motion.