The meaning behind dark cyan
About the color
Dark cyan is a peaceful, relaxing color that brings to mind the beauty and grandeur of nature. You may think of dark outlines of coral reefs in bright cyan oceans. You could also picture the majestic brilliance of peacock feathers, the rich blue-green shades of blue juniper needles, or the faint bluish-green glow from the center of a moonstone.
Blue-green distinctions in various human languages are a fascinating area of study. For instance, the Korean word 푸르다 (Romanized as “pureu-da”) can mean either blue or green. Korean speakers pair this word with adjective or noun modifiers to specify certain colors. But they can use Sino-Korean words, which are borrowed from Chinese, to describe shades of blue or green. “Cheonglogsaeg” (청록색 in Hangul script) can refer to blue-green, teal, or dark cyan.
The dark cyan hex code is #008B8B. The color meaning of dark cyan can depend on whether someone perceives it as blue, green, or somewhere in between. However, many associate it with calmness and serenity. Depending on the viewer, dark cyan can also have an air of authority or trust. When it’s part of a cyan and black color scheme, this shade can also suggest advanced technology and innovation.
Pantone hasn’t recently chosen dark cyan as a color of the year, but nearby hues include 2003’s aqua sky, 2005’s blue turquoise, and 2010’s turquoise.
| Type | Value |
|---|---|
| HEX | #008B8B |
| RGB | 0, 139, 139 |
| CMYK | 1, 0, 0, 0.45 |
Application in design
The RGB, CMYK, and HSV models each treat color differently. You don’t need an advanced design degree to create awesome graphics through VistaCreate, but you may find it helpful to know how these color models work.
The RGB model is used to display color on electronic devices and uses combinations of red, green, and blue light to generate different shades of any color. The dark cyan RGB color uses no red but contains green and blue at about half intensity. The CMYK model blends cyan, magenta, yellow, and black inks in print media. Dark cyan CMYK uses full-intensity cyan with nearly half-intensity black.
The HSV model uses hue to represent the base color, saturation for the amount of the pure hue present, and value to indicate brightness levels. Dark cyan is very close in hue, saturation, and brightness to nearby shades such as teal, water blue, cerulean, and Crayola’s blue-green. With its lower value, dark cyan is only about half as bright as pure cyan. Since the color name for dark cyan in English indicates a darker form of cyan, it aligns with the dark cyan color code in the HSV system.
With all this in mind, you can use dark cyan in a variety of aesthetics. Thanks to its abundance in nature, this color can lend itself to branding and logos for businesses in the travel and hospitality industries. Dark cyan’s associations with balance, optimism, and healing can also make it an ideal fit for health, wellness, and beauty brands.
