The greyscale test every palette should pass before a client sees it

If your palette only works on a calibrated monitor, it does not work. Two minutes in greyscale catches most problems.

Karachi is a hard place for colour. Your client's customers will see the brand on a cracked phone screen in direct sun, on a signboard after a dust storm, and on a menu photocopied at the shop next door. A palette that only looks good on my studio monitor is a palette that fails in the real city.

The test

Before any client sees colour, I convert the palette and three real layouts to greyscale. If two colours become the same grey, they will collapse for anyone with colour vision deficiency, which is roughly one in twelve men, and for everyone reading a faded print.

Then I print the layouts on the cheapest laser printer in the studio, in black only. If the price is still the most visible thing on the menu, and the "new" badge still stands out, the hierarchy is carried by contrast and not by hue. That is what I want.

For Noor Apothecary, the client loved a sage green and a dusty pink together. In greyscale they were identical. We kept both, but gave the pink a much lighter value and moved it to backgrounds only. Customers never noticed the change. Their dermatologist partner, who is colour blind, did, and thanked us.

Quick rules I follow

Pick one dark, one light and one accent first, then add the decorative colours. Check text contrast against WCAG AA at small sizes, not just headlines. And never let the accent colour carry information alone: pair it with a word, an icon or a shape.