Blue is locked and Carolina is the family. The only variable now is the field surface: charcoal, slate, or silver. Every value below was measured, and two of the three needed the accent retuned to survive the lighter base.
Your instinct here has a functional argument behind it, not just an aesthetic one. Roughly half the inspection happens outdoors: curb appeal, parking lines, lighting, dumpster enclosure, trees and mulch. A near-black screen in direct summer sun is a mirror. Lifting the base is a legibility decision as much as a taste one.
True Carolina #4B9CD3 holds on charcoal at 4.81:1. But at a mid-grey
#464E58 it collapses to 2.81:1, and the dark Carolina is worse at 1.56:1.
A mid-grey is simultaneously too light for the light blue and too dark for the dark blue. There is no
version of Carolina that works on it.
So slate below is pinned to #3C434C with the accent lifted to a pale sky
#9CC6E4, which is the only way to clear AA. That changes the character, which is a real
trade rather than a technicality. If we had picked a grey by eye we would have found this after the
app was built.
#262A2FWarm dark grey rather than black. Softer under the eye on a long walk-through, less of a mirror outdoors, and it is the only lighter base that still carries true Carolina blue at full strength. White text sits at 14.44:1, which is well past AAA.
The only lighter base that keeps true Carolina blue, so the brand colour you picked stays the brand colour. Softer than black without giving up any contrast. Lowest-risk change of the three.
It is a small move. If black felt too heavy to you, charcoal may still feel heavy, because at a glance it still reads as a dark app.
#3C434CA genuine mid grey, clearly not black. To clear AA the accent has to lift to a pale
sky #9CC6E4, which reads lighter and airier than true Carolina but is unmistakably the
same family. The most "daylight" of the three dark options.
Genuinely lighter and it looks it. The pale sky accent is arguably more "Carolina" in feel than true Carolina, and the whole screen reads calmer. Good outdoor legibility without fully inverting.
You lose true Carolina #4B9CD3 on the field surface entirely, so the brand colour differs between app and report. The mid grey also has the least contrast headroom of the three, meaning less room to add states later.
#E4E8ECThis one flips the field app to light. Dark ink on a cool silver page with white
cards, and the accent drops to a deep Carolina #1A5F8F. It is the most legible option
in direct sunlight by a wide margin, and it makes the app and the record feel like one continuous
document rather than two systems.
Unbeatable outdoors, which is half the walk. One visual system instead of two, so the app looks like the document it is producing. Also the cheapest to build and the easiest to print from.
You lose the instrument feel entirely, and the app and record stop being visually distinct. It is also the worst of the three in a dim stairwell or a dark mechanical room, where a bright screen is genuinely unpleasant.
| S1 · Charcoal | S2 · Slate | S3 · Silver | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | #262A2F | #3C434C | #E4E8EC |
| Text on base | 14.44 | 10.0 | 15.0 |
| Field accent | #4B9CD3 4.81 | #9CC6E4 5.53 | #1A5F8F 5.54 |
| Keeps true Carolina | Yes | No | No |
| Outdoors, bright sun | Fair | Good | Best |
| Dim stairwell | Best | Good | Worst |
| App vs record | Distinct | Distinct | One system |
| Headroom for new states | Most | Least | Good |
S1 Charcoal, and it is not close on the thing that matters most. It is the only base that keeps true Carolina blue at full strength, so the colour you chose stays the colour on every surface. It lifts off black exactly as you asked, it holds the most contrast headroom for states we have not designed yet, and it takes no risk.
But S3 Silver is the one to argue about, because it is the only option that answers the outdoor problem completely, and half this job happens outdoors. If any pilot feedback says the screen washes out in the parking lot, S3 is the answer and we should not pretend otherwise. The honest version may be build S1 and add S3 as a daylight mode rather than choosing. The tokens are already structured to make that a config change rather than a rebuild.
S2 Slate I would set aside. It costs you true Carolina on the field surface and buys the least contrast headroom of the three, which is the worst combination of the trades available.
| Trademark | Not searched. "Provenance" is a common word with marks in adjacent classes. Clear it before spending on identity. |
| Carolina association | Still worth a decision. In the Carolinas this blue reads as UNC before it reads as a brand. Charcoal softens it, but does not remove it. |
| Domain | roomprovenance.com, provenanceportfolio.com and provenance.management confirmed available. Repo is RoomProvenance. |
| The mark | Wordmarks are CSS placeholders. The winner needs a proper vector at three sizes. |
| Type | System stack throughout. Needs one self-hosted subset face so the wordmark reproduces consistently. |