Introducing 100 New NCS Standard Colours

For the first time since 2004, NCS Colour are launching new, standard colours, going from 1950 to 2050 colours.

NCS Colour are adding 100 new NCS Standard colours in the low chromatic colour area to offer their users more options and greater control when working with these colours. Low chromatic colours are very important in architecture, interior design, and product design. When looking at colour samples representing this colour area, it is often difficult to distinguish between one colour and the other. Is there a perfect white? How do I choose between different greige colours to get the right nuance? Is this too grey, or too beige? What gives that dark colour a slight tint of seriousness? A little chromaticness has the power to create a feeling that a neutral colour cannot do, and slight differences in nuance or hue can make a major impact on the final design. For this reason, NCS have added more colours in this area to make the NCS – Natural Colour System® complete and more inspirational.

”The low chromatic colours are a constant in our top list regarding best-selling colours. We have seen over the years how important these colours are. They are frequently used in our colour development projects with the decorative paint industry, kitchen brands, home appliance, automotive industry etc. and recurrently top the list of most requested colours by the design community.”

– Ingela Koski-Vähälä, Product Manager, NCS Colour

“We take pride in constantly working to improve the Natural Colour System and its physical and digital representations. Adding 100 new Standard colours is an important milestone for us.”

– Elin Askfelt, CEO, NCS Colour

FOUR COLOUR AREAS

The 100 new NCS Standard colours are divided into four colour areas. Low chromatic colours are the most frequently used colours in NCS apart from the true neutrals. The new colours focus on hues between yellow and red. This area of the NCS colour Circle includes beige and brown (as a nuance of orange) and pink (nuance of red). Furthermore, “White” is an extremely important colour. Even though there are countless white shades on the market, most of them have between 05 to 10 in Blackness and 00 to 02 in Chromaticness in NCS. For this reason, ncs are adding two new nuances in this space, 0601 & 1001, which correspond to the most sold whites, apart from the current Standard NCS.

: WHITE DELIGHT

: NORDIC MIDTONES

: GREAT GREYS

: BLACKISH ELEGANCE

White Delight

Tinted whites are colours with a slight chromaticness. They are very popular and increase your possibilities to be “on” colour, but still, give the feeling of being light and fresh. Within this area, we are launching 16 new hues, going from -R to G50Y. We are also launching two brand new nuance positions in the NCS Circle; NCS S 0601 and NCS S 1001. This area will include ten 10 colours, which we refer to as off-whites. The 100 new colours and updated design tools are launched to the market 7th of April 2022

Nordic Midtones

This colour area consists of warm and elegant colours that are a little darker and more colourful. They are strongly linked to Nordic design and the northern hemisphere, where the natural light comes in from an angle that gives the colours a “dark character”, with high blackness in relation to colour. Nordic design often consists of these colours, a scale that is useful and sought after.

Great Greys

In recent years, light, white colours have been very popular, along with the Scandinavian decoration style. We now see that we are slowly moving a bit towards more colourful areas, albeit toned down. The perfect balance in this colour area is greige. Greige consists of a scale between grey and beige. The search for the perfect greige is constantly spinning in interior design threads and blogs. In NCS, it lies between Y20R and Y30R, somewhere between wheat fields, reddish tones and sand. Here is an area that we have filled in with new Standard colours to be able to offer the perfect greige.

Blackish Elegance

When black is no longer black, but elegant dark colours with a touch of chromaticness. These colours give a very modern and contemporary feeling. The palette enhances the sense of luxury and mysticism. The colours are perfect to emphasise lighter and more chromatic details.

ABOUT NCS COLOUR

NCS Colour®© is a global provider of universal colour communication solutions. For more than 40 years, NCS Colour has revolutionised how the world communicates colour and continues to do so. Based on NCS – Natural Colour System®©, NCS Colour offers premium quality solutions such as physical references, digital applications and colour training to industries ranging from Coatings, Automotive, Architecture and Interior design. Founded in Sweden and with its headquarter in Stockholm,