WFP logoDesign System

Colours

Colour palette, tokens, and usage guidance.

Overview

The colour system is built for consistency, accessibility, and brand alignment.

Colours are defined as design tokens – not hard-coded values – so updates to the palette propagate automatically across components. Wherever possible, use semantic tokens, such as primary, danger, border.

The perceptually uniform colour palette ensures that each shade number has consistent contrast across all colour scales. For example, primary-600, danger-600, and neutral-600 all have a contrast ratio of ~4.8:1. For reference, the tables show each colour’s contrast ratio (against white).

Theme colours

Theme colours are the highest-level tokens. These are your first choice when building interfaces.

For example, background or muted for background surfaces, foreground for default text, and primary for interactive elements.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1
1.06
18.0
4.81
4.79
4.81
1.28
3.31

Semantic colours

Semantic colours express meaning – primary actions, neutral UI chrome, feedback states, and informational messaging. Each colour scale runs from 50 (lightest) to 950 (darkest).

In Tailwind, use them as utility classes such as text-primary-600, bg-muted, or border-danger-400.

Primary

The primary colours are used for links, buttons, focus rings, and other core interactive elements. They are mapped to the blue base colours.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.06
1.13
1.27
1.59
2.20
3.32
4.79
7.50
11.3
14.9
18.0

Neutral

The neutral colours provide backgrounds, borders, and text hierarchy for everyday UI.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.06
1.12
1.28
1.60
2.21
3.31
4.81
7.57
11.3
15.1
18.0

Neutral (alpha)

The neutral-alpha colours are semi-transparent equivalents of the neutral colours. They are designed for text, overlays, subtle borders, and muted text on various backgrounds.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.13
1.28
1.60
2.21
3.31
4.81
7.57
11.3
15.1
18.0

Danger

Use the danger colours for destructive actions, error states, and critical alerts.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.13
1.29
1.61
2.20
3.29
4.81
7.54
11.3
15.0
18.0

Warning

Use the warning colours for cautionary messages and non-critical alerts that need attention.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.12
1.28
1.59
2.19
3.31
4.80
7.50
11.3
15.0
17.9

Success

Use the success colours for positive feedback, confirmations, and completed states.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.13
1.28
1.61
2.19
3.30
4.79
7.49
11.3
15.0
17.9

Info

Use the info colours for neutral informational messaging and supplementary context.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.06
1.13
1.27
1.59
2.20
3.32
4.79
7.50
11.3
14.9
18.0

Base colours

The base colours are derived from the WFP brand colours and are mapped to many of the semantic colours.

Reserve base colours for illustrations, data visualization, and brand-specific contexts. In component code, use the theme colours and semantic colours.

Blue

The blue colour scale is derived from wfp-blue and wfp-navy.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.06
1.13
1.27
1.59
2.20
3.32
4.79
7.50
11.3
14.9
18.0

Aqua

The aqua colour scale is derived from wfp-aqua.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.06
1.13
1.28
1.60
2.21
3.30
4.79
7.58
11.3
15.0
18.0

Green

The green colour scale is derived from wfp-green and wfp-darkgreen.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.13
1.28
1.61
2.19
3.30
4.79
7.49
11.3
15.0
17.9

Ivory

The ivory colour scale is derived from wfp-ivory.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.14
1.29
1.61
2.20
3.29
4.80
7.53
11.3
14.9
17.9

Brown

The brown colour scale is derived from wfp-earthybrown.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.04
1.13
1.29
1.61
2.21
3.31
4.81
7.51
11.3
15.0
18.0

Orange

The orange colour scale is derived from wfp-orange.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.12
1.28
1.60
2.19
3.29
4.79
7.56
11.3
15.0
18.0

Red

The red colour scale is derived from wfp-red.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.13
1.29
1.61
2.20
3.29
4.81
7.54
11.3
15.0
18.0

Purple

The purple colour scale is derived from wfp-purple and wfp-burgundy.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
1.05
1.12
1.28
1.60
2.21
3.29
4.81
7.51
11.3
15.0
18.0

Brand colours

The original colours from the WFP Visual Brand Guide, from which the design system colour palette is derived.

Reserve brand colours for brand elements, such as logos, headers, footers, and marketing content.

PreviewTokenValueContrast :1
4.50
13.5
3.80
7.91
4.02
1.31
5.15
3.54
4.88
6.42
8.66

Usage

See Component usage.

Contrast checker

Check the contrast ratio between any 2 colour tokens. WCAG AA requires 4.50 for text and 3.0 for graphics.

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