Teal
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Color Values
Color Meaning
Teal represents sophistication, balance, and emotional stability. It's associated with communication, clarity, and spiritual grounding. Teal is both calming and refreshing.
Learn more on WikipediaFrequently Asked Questions About Teal
What two colors make teal?
Teal is made by mixing blue and green with more blue than green. A typical ratio is 2 parts blue to 1 part green. The result is a medium-to-dark blue-green color.
What's the difference between teal and turquoise?
Teal is darker and more blue-dominant than turquoise. Teal has a deeper, more muted quality, while turquoise is brighter and lighter. Both are blue-green colors but with different intensities.
How do you make light teal?
Light teal is made by mixing blue and green with more white, or by adding white to teal. The result is a soft, pastel blue-green.
The History of Teal
Teal takes its name from the Eurasian teal (Anas crecca), a small freshwater duck whose distinctive blue-green eye stripe has been recognized since the 14th century — making it one of the few English colors named directly for an animal's marking. As a designated color name, 'teal' appears in English from around 1917. The pigment history of teal is tied to the development of blue-green mineral pigments: Egyptian blue, verdigris (copper acetate), and later the modern synthetic pigments of the 19th century. In the 20th century, teal became a popular decorative color in Art Deco interiors of the 1920s–30s and again surged as a defining color of the 1990s, when teal-and-purple color schemes dominated professional sports team rebranding and interior trends.
Cultural Significance
Teal occupies interesting cultural territory as a relatively 'modern' color name without the ancient symbolic weight of primary colors. In corporate culture, teal has gained philosophical significance through Frederic Laloux's influential 2014 book 'Reinventing Organizations,' which used teal to represent the most evolved stage of organizational consciousness — self-managing, purposeful, and wholeness-oriented. This 'Teal Organization' concept spread widely in management circles. In healthcare, teal is the awareness ribbon color for ovarian cancer, sexual assault awareness, and post-traumatic stress disorder. In the Jacksonville Jaguars, Miami Dolphins, and San Jose Sharks branding, teal became associated with 1990s sports culture in the United States. In fashion, teal is consistently popular as a 'sophisticated statement color.'
Color Psychology
Teal combines blue's reliability and trust with green's growth and balance, creating a color that feels simultaneously professional and humanistic. It is perceived as sophisticated but approachable — more distinctive than navy, less aggressive than emerald. Research in environmental psychology suggests teal environments promote both productivity and wellbeing, making it effective in workplaces designed for creative knowledge work. Teal's associations with water, healing, and nature make it particularly effective in healthcare, wellness, and environmental branding. Unlike pure blue or pure green, teal feels 'complete' and balanced — it doesn't evoke the analytical coldness of blue alone or the rawness of green alone. Teal is consistently rated as a color that evokes 'sophistication' and 'calm confidence' in consumer research.
Design Tips for Teal
Teal is one of the most professionally versatile statement colors — it is distinctive enough to be memorable but balanced enough to work in serious contexts. For web design, #0F766E (Tailwind teal-700) provides excellent WCAG AA contrast on white and reads as authoritative. Teal pairs especially well with coral (#FF6B6B) for high-contrast vibrancy, or with warm beige and gold for elegant restraint. The classic 'teal and orange' combination is deliberately used in Hollywood color grading because human skin tones are orange-adjacent, creating maximum contrast with teal backgrounds. In interior design, a teal kitchen cabinet color (e.g., Farrow & Ball Mizzle or Vardo) is a sophisticated choice that works with brass hardware and white marble. Avoid pairing teal with pure green or pure blue — the similarity creates visual muddiness rather than contrast.