# Sage and Clay — palette recipe

## The idea
- Dusty greens and softened earth tones with the saturation turned down, for a calm, grown-up feel that never strains for attention.

## Use it for
- Wellbeing and therapy practices
- Gardening and home goods
- Slow-living blogs and journals

## Avoid it when
- You need urgency, such as sales or alerts
- The product must feel high-tech or cutting edge

## Colours
- Dried Sage (background): #eceee6
- Linen (surface): #f6f7f2
- Moss Shadow (text): #2a2e27
- Lichen (muted): #5a6154
- Soft Clay (accent): #7a5340
- Olive Leaf (accent-2): #4f644c
- Pale Reed (border): #cfd3c5

## Accessible pairs
- Linen on Moss Shadow — 12.8:1 (AA)
- Moss Shadow on Linen — 12.8:1 (AA)
- Dried Sage on Moss Shadow — 11.8:1 (AA)
- Moss Shadow on Dried Sage — 11.8:1 (AA)
- Moss Shadow on Pale Reed — 9.1:1 (AA)
- Pale Reed on Moss Shadow — 9.1:1 (AA)
- Linen on Soft Clay — 6.2:1 (AA)
- Soft Clay on Linen — 6.2:1 (AA)
- Linen on Olive Leaf — 6.0:1 (AA)
- Olive Leaf on Linen — 6.0:1 (AA)
- Lichen on Linen — 6.0:1 (AA)
- Linen on Lichen — 6.0:1 (AA)
- Dried Sage on Soft Clay — 5.7:1 (AA)
- Soft Clay on Dried Sage — 5.7:1 (AA)
- Dried Sage on Olive Leaf — 5.5:1 (AA)
- Olive Leaf on Dried Sage — 5.5:1 (AA)
- Dried Sage on Lichen — 5.5:1 (AA)
- Lichen on Dried Sage — 5.5:1 (AA)
- Pale Reed on Soft Clay — 4.4:1 (AA large)
- Soft Clay on Pale Reed — 4.4:1 (AA large)
- Olive Leaf on Pale Reed — 4.2:1 (AA large)
- Pale Reed on Olive Leaf — 4.2:1 (AA large)
- Lichen on Pale Reed — 4.2:1 (AA large)
- Pale Reed on Lichen — 4.2:1 (AA large)

## Principles
- Keep every colour greyed down; nothing should look fresh out of the tube.
- Use soft clay for buttons and links, olive leaf for quiet highlights.
- Let linen cards sit on the sage page with a pale reed edge, not a shadow.
- Set text in moss shadow, never pure black, to match the softness.