Crimson & Emerald & White

Crimson, Emerald, and White — the three most optically distinct colors possible in terms of hue variety and luminance range — warm saturated, cool saturated, and neutral maximum luminance. White (maximum luminance, zero saturation) acts as a supremely powerful amplifier of both Crimson's warm saturation and Emerald's jewel-green saturation. Against the white ground, both colors appear more vivid, more saturated, and more jewel-like than against any other background.

The palette is the visual world of the Italian national flag (il Tricolore — the three-color flag of Italy) in its most traditional and most ceremonially significant context — specifically the green-white-red tricolor that serves as the national symbol of the Italian Republic. The Italian tricolor: the vivid green of the hoist-side vertical stripe; the pure white of the central vertical stripe; and the deep crimson-to-red of the fly-side vertical stripe — though the standard Tricolore uses a more orange-shifted red than crimson, in the tradition of the most formal and most historically significant Italian flag ceremonies, deep crimson-to-scarlet is the ceremonially correct red. The broader association: the Crimson-Emerald-White palette is also the most immediately Italian of all three-color combinations, evoking the colors of the Italian landscape — the vivid emerald of the Mediterranean vegetation, the pure white of the marble and limestone of Italian buildings, and the deep crimson-to-red of the Italian wines (particularly Brunello di Montalcino and Barolo — the two most prestigious Italian red wines, with a deep crimson-to-ruby color in the glass).