There is a makeup brand called Coco that makes palettes. This is not that.
CoCo Palettes is CultureSchool's living library of over 1,000 named color palettes — each one drawn from a real cultural moment, a real place, or a real memory. No shade matching, no beauty tutorials. Just color stories that mean something.
Where the palettes come from
Every palette in the CoCo library starts with a source. A photograph. A place. A tradition. A friendship.
Firenze Fuchsia came from a sunset at the Piazza del Michelangelo in Florence — that specific moment when the sky went hot pink above a terracotta city and refused to apologize for it.
Gullah Sea Island Indigo came from watching Raffaella of Chi Design Indigo work in her studio — the way resist-dyed cloth moves through an indigo vat, building color in layers that carry centuries of Gullah Geechee tradition.
Jamaican Mango Orange came from a photograph of a mango on a tree in a family yard in Jamaica — that exact moment of ripeness where green gives way to gold and the orange underneath is almost too bright to look at.
Harlem to Lagos is an ode to the Nigerian community in New York City — the particular elegance of deep burgundy, rich gold, and midnight navy worn with intention through the streets of Harlem.
Persian Pomegranate is a nod to the significance of the pomegranate in Persian culture — a symbol of abundance, of the new year, of a home that is open and full.
These are not color trends. They are color memories.
What you can do with a CoCo palette
Once a palette exists in the library, it becomes the foundation for everything CultureSchool makes. Apply it to a pattern — Kente, Shibori, Zellige, Mudcloth, Suzani, Adinkra, and more. Order that pattern on a pillow, a tote, or fabric yardage. Use it as the design foundation for a wedding invitation or a dinner party landing page. License it as a digital print file for your own creative work.
Over 4,500 patterns and palette combinations are currently in the library — and growing every week as new palettes are contributed by artists, travelers, and cultural practitioners from around the world.
Who contributes to the library?
CoCo Palettes is not just CultureSchool's library — it is becoming a community archive. Winfred Amoah, our Founding Artist in Residence in Hohoe, Ghana, contributed the Hohoe Rust and Russet palette from his large-scale acrylic mixed media practice. Raffaella of Chi Design Indigo contributed the deep indigo tones of her ancestral dyeing work. Contributors from Jamaica, Morocco, South Korea, Uzbekistan, and beyond have added palettes drawn from their own cultural moments.
Nothing here is interpreted. Everything here is lived.
How to explore CoCo Palettes
The full palette and pattern library lives at coco-palettes.cultureschool.org. Browse by occasion, filter by cultural tradition, or let the shuffle surface something unexpected. Every palette links to its patterns, and every pattern links to the products it can be applied to.
Explore the traditions and palettes in the library:
- 3 African Textile Patterns That Should Be in Your Home in 2026
- 3 Asian Textile Patterns Transforming Event Design in 2026
- The Stories Behind the Palettes
- Color Stories: Jamaican Mango Orange
If you have a color story worth naming — a place, a memory, a cultural tradition — we want to hear it. Palette submissions are open.
Explore the CoCo Palette Library →
Read More:
Jamaican Mango Orange- Palette
The Story Behind the Palettes
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