Helvetia Blue & Grayish Lavender - B +1

About this combination

Combination 187 of 348 in Wada's six-volume 1933 work. A 3-colour grouping of Helvetia Blue, Grayish Lavender - B, Aconite Violet, as documented in the original plates.

Historical context

Plate 187 of Wada's 348 anchors Helvetia Blue, Grayish Lavender - B and Aconite Violet in the blue family — a 3-colour grouping with a refined, cool character, recorded in the Showa-era volumes of Sanzo Wada's 1933 Dictionary of Color Combinations, where these shikisai names have sat in the public domain for generations. Its strongest pairing — Helvetia Blue on Grayish Lavender - B — reaches a contrast ratio of 3.32:1, usable for large text but not body copy, so it reads best in decorative blocks rather than text pairings.