Oxford Blue (colour)

Oxford Blue is the official colour of the University of Oxford.^[1] The official Oxford branding guidelines set its definition as Pantone 282, equivalent to the hex code #002147.^[2]

Oxford Blue
Colour coordinates
Hex triplet	#002147
sRGBB (r, g, b)	(0, 33, 71)
HSV (h, s, v)	(212°, 100%, 28%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)	(13, 26, 254°)
Source	Oxford Branding Guidelines
ISCC–NBS descriptor	Dark blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Oxford Blue colour #002147

With a hue code of 212, this colour is a very dark tone of azure.

Usage

Oxford Blue stems from the University of Oxford's combined-colleges (whole-university) leading sport teams, thus including Oxford Blues (first sides) and Half-Blues (second sides). In UK rowing, blades consisting only of that colour are used only by these two sides. However it is used in combination with other colours on the blades of Ardingly, Bristol Ariel, City of Oxford, Isle of Ely, Sudbury, Torquay, and Hatfield College (Durham) clubs, Dragon School (Oxford), and by various Oxford colleges, most notably Oriel and Green Templeton.^[3] The colour (or a very close variant said to be the same) is used by the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League; Wycombe Wanderers F.C.; and universities commonly known as Toronto;^[4] Penn State;^[5] Georgetown;^[6] Michigan (as to many athletics teams);^[7] and Berkeley.^[8]

Origin

The colour was originally chosen by Charles Wordsworth and Thomas Garnier, two members of the 1829 Boat Race crew using "the Christ Church guernsey as our pattern (four of the crew being Christ Church men), only with a broader and darker blue, instead of black stripe. Hence the origin of the 'Dark Blues'."^[9] The colour itself is said to have been borrowed from Harrow Blue, as Charles Wordsworth and Charles Merivale, the creators of The Boat Race, attended Harrow School. Similarly, Cambridge Blue is said to have derived from Eton blue.

See also

• Blue (university sport)
  • Blue (university sport)#University of Oxford
• Cambridge Blue (colour)
• Palatinate (colour)
• List of colours

References

1. Oxford Brand Colours Archived 2013-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, University of Oxford.
2. Oxford Digital Style Guide, University of Oxford.
3. The Umpires' Handbook British Rowing, 2020: at pages 43 to 53.
4. "Colors + Fonts - U of T Trademark Licensing". trademarks.utoronto.ca. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
5. "Background about Penn State's Visual Identity - Visual Identity". psu.edu. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
6. "Primary and Secondary Colors - Visual Identity". Visualidentity.georgetown.edu. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
7. "The University of Michigan Brand | Global Marketing & Communications". Logos.umich.edu. Retrieved 24 December 2013.
8. "Color • Brand Guidelines". brand.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
9. Wordsworth, Charles (1891). The annals of my early life. London: Longmans. p. 60.