Stark Callicarpa
Stark Callicarpa (#311445) is a deep indigo with an earthy character. It leans grounded and natural, the kind of color that plays well with wood, clay, linen, and warm neutrals. Its HSL profile (276°, 55%, 17%) places it in the balanced band at a dark lightness. It works well as a headline, icon, or deep background in an otherwise light layout, pairing cleanly with cream, bone, and warm neutrals. For a confident two-color system, pair it with its complementary lime. For something softer, pull in its analogous neighbors on either side of the wheel.
Etymology
Old English stearc, stiff / strong — sharing root with German stark and Dutch sterk. As a color modifier, stark implies a deep-and-uncompromising contrast where the hue stands without modulation against its substrate. Sits at the deep-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to severe with sharper visual register.
Asian beautyberry (Callicarpa dichotoma) — a deciduous shrub with axial clusters of brilliant deep-violet drupes ripening in autumn and persisting into winter on bare stems. Callicarpa color refers to a fully ripened Callicarpa dichotoma axial drupe-cluster: a saturated, slightly cool deep violet with the matte finish of anthocyanin-rich four-celled drupes. The genus name comes from the Greek kalós (beautiful) and karpós (fruit).
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 exploreHarmonies
Accessibility
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.
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.