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Stripped Norn Lagoon

#21bde0
Notes

Stripped Norn Lagoon (#21BDE0) is a true cyan with a vibrant character. It holds its own as a focal accent, carrying visual weight without tipping into neon territory. Its HSL profile (191°, 75%, 50%) places it in the balanced band at a mid lightness. It works across type, buttons, and borders, saturated enough to feel deliberate but balanced enough to not fight the rest of the palette. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary red. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.

HEX
#21bde0
RGB
rgb(33, 189, 224)
HSL
hsl(191, 75%, 50%)
HWB
hwb(191 13% 12%)
OKLCH
oklch(73.9% 0.128 218.3)
P3
color(display-p3 0.3540 0.7304 0.8628)
HSV
hsv(191, 85%, 88%)
LAB
lab(70.94% -25.91 -28.24)
LCH
lch(70.94% 38.32 227.47)
CMYK
cmyk(85%, 16%, 0%, 12%)

Etymology

Stripped
adjective

Old English stripian, to strip — past-participle of strip. As a color modifier, stripped implies a clear-and-bared-and-unornamented quality, the crisp color of Cistercian-and-Bauhaus anti-ornamental stripped-down architectural interior. Sits at the crisp-and-stripped end of the grid, parallel to spare and bare in usage.

Norn
modifier

Old Norse norn, Norse-fate-weaver. As a color modifier, norn implies a Norse-fate-weaver-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld quality, the visual register of Norse-Norns-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld hand-Norse-fate-weaver-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld Norse-Norns-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld-and-Yggdrasil-roots norn-and-Norse-fate-weaver surfaces under Norse-Norns-and-Urd-Verdandi-Skuld-and-Yggdrasil-roots Well-of-Urd-and-loom-of-fate fate-weaver-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to vala and rune in usage.

Lagoon
noun

A shallow body of saltwater partially or fully enclosed by a barrier — coral atoll lagoons in the Pacific, Venice's Laguna Veneta, the Florida Keys' backcountry. The color refers to the average reflectance of a calm tropical lagoon at midday: a saturated, slightly muted blue-green with the optical clarity of shallow water over white sand. Brighter than reef, cooler than aquamarine, with the postcard weight of a Pacific atoll seen from above.

Closest matches

The nearest named color in three reference sources, ranked by perceptual distance (ΔE76 in CIELAB). ΔE < 1 is imperceptible to most viewers; ΔE > 10 is clearly different. When two sources point to the same hex they’re merged into one tile; click any to open that color’s page.

Variations

Click any swatch to explore

Harmonies

Accessibility

Color-vision simulation

How this color appears to viewers with the four major color-vision-deficiency types. Computed via the Machado (2009) physiologically-based model. If a tile matches the original, the color reads the same to that viewer.

#21bde0
Original
#a7b7e2
Protanopia
#8fa6e0
Deuteranopia
#00c9c8
Tritanopia
#9e9e9e
Achromatopsia
WCAG contrast

The color used as foreground text against pure white and pure black, with the contrast ratio and WCAG 2.1 grade. Aim for AA (4.5:1) for body text and AA Large (3:1) for 18 pt+ headlines; AAA (7:1) is the gold standard for long-form reading surfaces.

The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
Failon White
2.23:1
The quick brown foxSample body text at normal size. The wcag minimum for body contrast is 4.5:1 (AA) or 7:1 (AAA).
AAAon Black
9.42:1

Wide gamut

Display P3 representation

The CSS Color 4 wide-gamut form of this color. Both swatches render the same color on every display — the P3 form only diverges from sRGB when a designer pushes channels outside sRGB's reach.

sRGB hex
sRGB hex
##21BDE0
Display P3
Display P3
color(display-p3 0.3540 0.7304 0.8628)
P3 has subtle headroomOKLCH chroma 0.128

Moderately saturated colors gain a small bump in P3 — the difference is usually visible side-by-side on wide-gamut hardware but won't change the character of the color.

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