Crimson
#DC143C
Navy
#001F5B
Magenta
#FF00FF
Crimson & Navy & Magenta
Crimson, Navy and Magenta Color Trio — Meaning, Palette, Style & Design
Split-ComplementaryCrimson, Navy and Magenta Color Meaning
Navy (very deep, dark — the most deeply saturated ground color of the most elaborately painted Haida cedar box) and Magenta (pure, vivid, electric — the specific color of the most concentrated alder bark dye used in the most important Haida textile and formline painting traditions) create the most specifically Haida Northwest Coast and the most ceremonially charged cool-warm pair. Against Crimson's passionate Haida salmon formline warm, this creates the most specifically Haida Northwest Coast art palette.
The palette is the visual world of Haida art — the most formally codified and the most visually powerful indigenous art tradition in North America (Haida — the indigenous people of Haida Gwaii — the archipelago of approximately 150 islands off the northwest coast of British Columbia — the most immediately beautiful and the most ecologically rich archipelago in Canada — whose art tradition is the most technically sophisticated and the most internationally collected indigenous art in North America). The Haida art palette: the deep vivid crimson of the Haida salmon formline (the characteristic deep, vivid crimson-to-red of the salmon formline — the most important and the most frequently depicted animal in the entire Haida art tradition — the Pacific salmon being the most culturally, the most economically, and the most spiritually significant creature in the Haida worldview — depicted in the most elaborate and the most structurally complex formline compositions on totem poles, bent-corner boxes, and ceremonial regalia); the very deep dark navy of the cedar box ground (the specific very deep dark blue-black of the most elaborately painted Haida bent-corner box — the most technically challenging and the most highly valued of all Haida craft objects — whose deep blue-black ground is created by mixing the most intensely concentrated charcoal pigment with the most carefully rendered animal fat binder); and the pure vivid electric magenta of the alder bark dye (the specific vivid, electric, pure magenta-to-cerise of the most concentrated alder bark dye — used in the most important Haida textile dyeing tradition — specifically the dyeing of Haida Raven's Tail and Chilkat weaving).
Crimson, Navy and Magenta in Design
Deep passionate Crimson, very deep dark Navy, and pure vivid electric Magenta create the most Haida Northwest Coast art and most ceremonially charged split-complementary palette. Haida Northwest Coast palette — passionate crimson Haida salmon formline totem-pole most culturally significant, very deep dark navy cedar bent-corner-box charcoal-ground Haida-Gwaii, and pure vivid electric magenta alder-bark dye Haida-textile most charged.
Crimson, Navy and Magenta Color Style
Haida Northwest Coast art and Pacific salmon ceremonial tradition — deep Crimson passionate Haida-salmon-formline-totem-pole, very deep dark Navy cedar-bent-corner-box-charcoal-ground, and pure vivid electric Magenta alder-bark-dye-Haida-textile. The palette of the most formally codified and the most internationally celebrated indigenous art tradition in North America.
What Crimson, Navy and Magenta Mean Together
Crimson is the Haida salmon formline — the deep vivid crimson of the salmon in Haida art. Haida formline: the formline (the continuous curvilinear line — flowing without beginning or end — that is the most fundamental and the most immediately distinctive structural element of all Northwest Coast indigenous art traditions — most rigorously and the most systematically theorized in Bill Holm's 'Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form' — 1965 — the most important single text in the study of Northwest Coast art) is the most immediately identifiable visual vocabulary of the Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, and related Northwest Coast traditions. The salmon formline: the Pacific salmon (the five species of Pacific salmon — Chinook, Coho, Chum, Pink, and Sockeye — the most economically and the most spiritually significant creatures in the coastal Northwest indigenous worldview — the most immediately present and the most continuously central of all the animal beings in the Haida ceremonial and artistic tradition) is depicted in Haida art through the most complex and the most structurally sophisticated formline compositions — with the characteristic ovoid forms representing the most important joints and the most significant body masses, the u-form shapes representing the most secondary design fields, and the most precisely controlled positive-to-negative space relationship creating the most visually dynamic and the most immediately identifiable Haida visual experience. The salmon crimson: the most characteristic color of the salmon in Haida formline painting is the deep vivid crimson — the specific deep, vivid, slightly blue-shifted red of the most concentrated iron oxide or vermilion pigment used in the traditional Haida painting tradition — appearing most dramatically in the most elaborate totem pole and house-front paintings. Navy is the cedar box ground — the very deep dark navy of the Haida bent-corner box ground. The bent-corner box: the Haida bent-corner box (the most technically demanding and the most universally valued of all Haida wooden objects — made from a single plank of western red cedar — Thuja plicata — steamed and bent at three corners, with the fourth corner sewn together using root lacing, and the base separately added — the most technically precise and the most structurally elegant container in the indigenous art of the Pacific Northwest) is painted with the most elaborate formline designs — typically in three colors: the deep blue-black ground color (made from the most concentrated charcoal or graphite mixed with salmon roe as a binder — producing the characteristic very deep blue-black of the most important Haida painted surfaces); the most vivid red-to-crimson of the formline primary elements; and the most pale aqua-to-green-blue of the secondary design elements (sometimes replaced with the most vivid yellow in more recent works). The specific navy ground: the specific very deep, almost absolute dark navy-blue-black of the most important Haida bent-corner box ground is the single most dramatically beautiful and the most immediately specific element of the Haida painted surface tradition — a darkness so complete and so luminously deep that the crimson and magenta formline elements appear to float above the surface. Magenta is the alder bark dye — the pure vivid electric magenta of the most concentrated Haida alder bark textile dye. Alder bark dyeing: the red alder (Alnus rubra — the most common and the most widely distributed of the alder species in the Pacific Northwest coast — known in Haida as tllgaa) produces a characteristic vivid orange-to-magenta dye from its inner bark — used in the most important Northwest Coast textile traditions (particularly the Chilkat blanket weaving and the Raven's Tail weaving traditions of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian peoples). The specific magenta: the most concentrated alder bark dye (produced by the most extended extraction — boiling the inner bark in water for the most prolonged period, typically 3-6 hours, and then adding a tanning mordant — traditionally urine or ash — to intensify the color fixation) produces the most vivid and the most purely electric magenta-to-orange-red — a color that is simultaneously the most naturally organic (produced from tree bark) and the most electrically vivid — creating the most immediately beautiful and the most strikingly pure color in the entire Northwest Coast textile tradition.
Crimson, Navy and Magenta in Branding
Haida Northwest Coast art and ceremonial tradition brands with the most ceremonially charged split-complementary palette, Northwest Coast indigenous heritage and Canadian cultural brands with the Haida aesthetic, premium luxury Northwest Coast art and Pacific heritage brands with crimson-navy-magenta vocabulary, luxury Canada travel and indigenous cultural heritage brands, and any brand communicating passionate crimson Haida-salmon-formline, very deep dark navy cedar-box-ground, and pure vivid electric magenta alder-bark-dye — use Crimson-Navy-Magenta.
Brands
Industries
Crimson, Navy and Magenta in Fashion & Interior
In fashion, Crimson-Navy-Magenta is the Haida Northwest Coast palette — deep Crimson passionate Haida-salmon-formline, very deep dark Navy cedar-box-charcoal-ground, and pure vivid electric Magenta alder-bark-dye-textile. In Northwest-Coast-inspired interiors, Navy as the dominant very deep dark cedar-ground cool anchor, Magenta for the vivid electric dye cool-warm secondary, and Crimson for the passionate salmon-formline warm jewel.
Crimson, Navy & Magenta — Each Color Separately
Crimson
#DC143C
Deep vivid red — the Haida formline salmon in the most Northwest Coast art trio.
Explore Crimson →Navy
#001F5B
Very deep dark blue — the North Pacific cedar box ground, the deepest coastal cool.
Explore Navy →Magenta
#FF00FF
Pure vivid magenta — the alder bark Haida dye, the most electrically charged warm-cool.
Explore Magenta →Crimson, Navy and Magenta — FAQ
- Do Crimson, Navy and Magenta work together?
- Yes — most ceremonially charged Haida split-complementary: Navy very deep dark cedar-box-ground and Magenta pure vivid electric alder-bark-dye are the most specifically Haida and the most ceremonially charged cool-warm pair, Crimson passionate salmon-formline the most culturally central and the most structurally complex warm. Haida art: Crimson salmon passionate, Navy cedar-box very deep, Magenta alder-dye pure electric.
- What is Haida art and its formal principles?
- Haida art (the indigenous visual art tradition of the Haida people of Haida Gwaii — the archipelago of approximately 150 islands off the northwest coast of British Columbia — also called the Queen Charlotte Islands under the colonial name — the most formally codified and the most systematically analyzed indigenous art tradition in North America) is characterized by the most immediately distinctive and the most rigorously structured visual vocabulary: the formline system. The formline: theorized and named by the art historian Bill Holm (Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form — University of Washington Press, 1965 — the most important single academic text in the study of Northwest Coast indigenous art) — the formline is a continuous, curvilinear, flowing line of varying width — thickening and thinning in specific ways at specific positions — that simultaneously defines the most primary design forms, the most important body shapes of the depicted animals, and the structural organization of the entire composition. The three design elements: Holm identified the three primary design elements of the Northwest Coast formline system as: (1) the ovoid (a distinctive egg-like closed form with characteristically specific proportions and corner treatment — representing the most important body masses and joints of the depicted creatures); (2) the U-form (a bilaterally symmetrical form derived from the ends of the primary formline — used to fill the most important secondary design spaces); and (3) the split U-form (a U-form divided by an internal formline — used in the most specific compositional contexts). The two-dimensional flatwork tradition: the most immediately internationally recognizable Haida art objects are: totem poles (the most immediately tall and the most publicly imposing), bent-corner boxes (the most technically demanding and the most formally sophisticated), and the most elaborate ceremonial regalia (masks, frontlets, blankets, and button blankets). The totem pole: the Haida totem pole (traditionally carved from the most massive and the most straight-grained western red cedar trunks — some of the most important historical poles standing between 15 and 20 meters tall) represents the most compressed and the most narratively dense visual storytelling in any indigenous sculptural tradition — each pole recording the most important mythological relationships and the most significant ancestral crests of the commissioning family.
- What is the ecological significance of Pacific salmon?
- The Pacific salmon (the five species of Pacific salmon in the genus Oncorhynchus — Chinook — king salmon — O. tshawytscha; Coho — silver salmon — O. kisutch; Chum — dog salmon — O. keta; Pink — humpback salmon — O. gorbuscha; and Sockeye — red salmon — O. nerka — the most economically, the most ecologically, and the most culturally significant group of fish in the Pacific Northwest) is the single most important species in the entire Northwest Coast ecosystem — functioning simultaneously as a marine nutrient pump, a forest fertilizer, a commercial fishery species, and the most central ceremonial and spiritual being in the Northwest Coast indigenous worldview. The salmon-forest connection: when Pacific salmon return from the ocean to spawn in the freshwater streams and rivers of their birth, they bring with them the most concentrated and the most nutritionally valuable marine nutrients — nitrogen and phosphorus accumulated during the most productive years of ocean feeding — that are then deposited throughout the riparian and forest ecosystems when the fish die after spawning. The most dramatic impact: bears, eagles, wolves, and ravens carry salmon carcasses from the streams into the surrounding forest — sometimes hundreds of meters from the water — where the most rapidly decomposing carcasses fertilize the most nutrient-poor coastal forest soils with the most direct and the most chemically available nitrogen and phosphorus. Ecological studies have shown that the most heavily salmon-populated streams produce forest trees that grow up to 3 times faster than the same species in streams without salmon — the most direct and the most quantifiable ecological impact of any migratory fish on terrestrial ecosystems. The salmon return: the salmon's natal stream return (the ability of the Pacific salmon to return — after 1-5 years in the open Pacific Ocean — to the specific stream and the specific pool where it was born — using a combination of magnetic field navigation, celestial navigation, and olfactory memory of the specific chemical signature of its birth stream) is the most dramatically and the most biologically impressive navigational feat in the animal kingdom.
- What are Haida totem poles and what do they represent?
- Haida totem poles (the most impressive and the most immediately internationally recognizable of all Northwest Coast indigenous art objects — the tall, carved, and painted cedar poles displaying stacked animal and supernatural figures — representing the most compressed and the most narratively rich visual storytelling in any indigenous sculptural tradition in North America) serve several distinct functions in the Haida cultural tradition. Types: (1) Memorial poles (raised to honor a deceased chief or person of high status — the most commonly erected type — the most culturally significant); (2) House frontal poles (the most architecturally integrated — erected at the front of a traditional Haida longhouse, with the most dramatic carved figures and often a circular opening at the base serving as the house entrance); (3) Mortuary poles (the most directly burial-related — containing the remains of a chief or important person in a box at the top); (4) Welcome figures (the most immediately greeting-oriented — single carved figures standing at the beach entrance to a village). Crest figures: the most important carved figures on Haida totem poles are the most significant crest animals of the commissioning family's lineage — the most important crests being: the Raven (the most important trickster-transformer in the Haida mythological tradition — the being who brought light to the world); the Eagle (the most prestigious of the Haida moieties — the Haida society being divided into two moieties: Raven and Eagle — each moiety further subdivided into lineages with specific crests); the Killer Whale (the most powerful ocean creature in the Haida worldview — associated with the most powerful supernatural forces of the deep sea); and the Bear (the most important land-based power figure). The pole's social function: erecting a totem pole was the most expensive and the most socially prestigious act available to a Haida chief — requiring the commissioning of the most accomplished carvers (the most highly respected specialist artists in the Haida community), the hosting of the most elaborate potlatch ceremony (the most important Haida social institution — a feast at which the host family gives away the most impressive quantities of goods to demonstrate their wealth and the most honorable character), and the most extensive community participation.
- What proportion creates the most Haida Northwest Coast quality?
- Navy dominant (50%) as the very deep dark cedar-box-charcoal-ground cool anchor; Crimson at 30% as the passionate salmon-formline warm secondary; Magenta at 20% as the pure vivid electric alder-bark-dye cool-warm jewel. Navy's dominance creates the Haida Northwest Coast quality — the vast, very deep, almost absolutely dark navy-blue-black of the most elaborately painted Haida bent-corner box ground is the single most formally important and the most immediately aesthetically powerful element of the entire Haida painted surface tradition — the specific very deep darkness of the cedar box ground creates the most dramatic and the most luminously beautiful contrast with the vivid crimson and the electric magenta of the superimposed formline elements, producing the most immediately powerful and the most visually intense surface of any indigenous decorative art in North America; Crimson's passionate salmon provides the most culturally central and the most structurally primary warm element; and Magenta's vivid electric alder bark provides the most surprisingly electric and the most organically vivid warm-cool accent.