Pleasant Frieze Lagoon

From the French plaisant, pleasing — used as a color modifier since the fifteenth century for hues that read as agreeable, the kind of color that wears well over a long viewing without becoming demanding or fatiguing. Pleasant green, pleasant rose: moderate saturation combined with optical comfort. Sits at the crisp-bucket alongside easy and calm.

Old French frise, band-of-decoration. As a color modifier, frieze implies a horizontal-decorative-band quality, the visual register of Greek-Parthenon-and-Roman-Imperial-frieze hand-carved Doric-and-Ionic-and-Corinthian classical-decorative-frieze architectural surfaces under classical-frieze decorative-band light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to eave and plinth in usage.

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.