Colorado State Colors
Official color palette of Colorado
State color reference
State Colors of Colorado
- Official colors
- Blue, White
- Official since
- Official 1911
- Primary use
- State Flag, State Seal, State Branding
Color Specifications
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Blue
Fills the top and bottom stripes of the flag and the letter C, chosen for the Colorado sky.
White
The center stripe of the state flag, chosen in 1911 for the snowpack on Colorado's Rocky Mountain peaks.
What Colorado Colors Represent
Three horizontal stripes on a 1911 flag, blue above and below, white at center, with a red letter C holding a golden disk for the Colorado sun.
How Colorado Made Blue and White Official
Colorado's General Assembly designated blue and white as official state colors in 1911, the same session that adopted the state flag. The flag was designed by Andrew Carlisle Johnson of Denver, who built the design around the two colors. Blue runs across the top and bottom stripes, white fills the center.
The 1911 act left one thing unresolved: the exact proportions of the letter C on the flag were never specified. In 1929, the legislature returned to the flag and standardized the dimensions. The colors themselves have remained unchanged since the original act.
What Colorado Colors Mean
When Colorado adopted blue and white in 1911, the blue columbine had already been the official state flower for twelve years. The colors formalized a connection the landscape already made obvious. No official Pantone or HEX was specified in the original act.
What Colorado Blue Means
Blue fills the two horizontal stripes of the Colorado state flag and the distinctive letter C. When the legislature chose it in 1911, they linked it to the Colorado sky and the blue columbine, the state flower since 1899.
Meaning of Colorado White
Snowpack on Colorado's peaks stays year-round above 11,000 feet. That enduring presence is what the 1911 act captured in the center stripe: a band of white between two blue bars.
Where Colorado Colors Appear
Blue and white appear on the Colorado state flag, the state seal, and in the state's official columbine, the flower that inspired the blue.
State Flag
Three stripes run the full width of the flag, blue on top, white in the center, blue on the bottom, with a red letter C on the left containing a golden disk representing Colorado sunshine.
State Seal
The Great Seal of Colorado places the Rocky Mountains at center, an eye of God above them, and the motto Nil Sine Numine in blue lettering around the border.
Blue Columbine
Colorado's official state flower since 1899 has blue outer petals and white inner ones, the two official colors appearing together in nature twelve years before the legislature made them official.
Quick Answers
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Sources
Colorado State Symbols
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