# ADR-0001 · Complementary palette over classic LCARS

**Status**: accepted
**Date**: 2026-05
**Decision-makers**: design + product

## Context

Early UI sketches used classic LCARS palette (orange/peach/yellow on black). The aesthetic worked for demonstrating the visual language but had two practical problems:

1. **Brand collision** — Blocao's logo and brand mark are lime green (`#9FCB3A`). Orange-dominant LCARS placed the brand in the same warm-color family, diluting it visually.
2. **Domain semantics** — orange traditionally means "warning" in industrial UI. Using orange as the dominant neutral color made every screen feel mildly alarming and made it impossible to use orange for actual warnings.

## Decision

Adopt a **complementary palette** rotated ~180° from classic LCARS. Cyan-dominant instead of orange-dominant.

Token palette (final):

```
--ink:    #66CCFF   /* primary navigation, dominant */
--cam:    #6699FF   /* cameras / VLAN-10 */
--hai:    #CC99CC   /* compute / VLAN-20 (mauve) */
--iot:    #99CC99   /* health / OK states (green) */
--mgmt:   #CCCC99   /* management / VLAN-30 (olive) */
--wan:    #66CCCC   /* WAN / external (turquoise) */
--warn:   #99FFFF   /* warnings (bright cyan) */
--brand:  #9FCB3A   /* Blocao green — logo and brand only */
```

The brand green is **isolated** from semantic UI. It only appears for logo, brand chip in the status strip, and explicit brand moments. UI states never reuse brand color.

## Consequences

**Good**:
- Brand green stands out against cyan-dominant chrome.
- Warnings can use bright cyan (`--warn`) which contrasts against the cyan-blue chrome without being confused with normal text.
- The palette feels distinctive without losing LCARS character.

**Bad / trade-offs**:
- Less immediately recognizable as "LCARS" to Star Trek fans.
- Some viewers in the early demos commented "feels like a different visual language" — that's actually intended but worth noting.

## Alternatives considered

- **Pure classic LCARS**: rejected for reasons above.
- **Custom palette unrelated to LCARS**: would lose the visual hook that makes Blocao memorable.
- **Brand-color-as-dominant** (lime green everywhere): too aggressive, reduces accessibility on dark backgrounds, exhausts the eye.

## See also

- `mockups/palette-comparison.html` — interactive toggle between classic and complementary.
- `docs/03-design/design-tokens.md` — the full token table.