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Inspiration in the color tangerine.

Learn the history and meaning of the color tangerine, a sweet orange hue as juicy as its namesake.

Design with tangerine

Get inspired with tangerine design templates.

The color tangerine provides instant “pop” to projects and makes life just a little bit sweeter.

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What is the meaning of the color tangerine?

Tangerine color is a bold, sweet shade of orange. Its hue is named after the rind of the small tangerine fruit. Fans of citrus will know that although their flavor profiles are the same, tangerines are sweeter than orange, and the difference between orange and tangerine color follows suit. Tangerine is a more concentrated dose of the flavor and color alike.

The color tangerine is a saturated shade of orange named after the small, sweet fruit. Tangerine color evokes energy and happiness.

The history of tangerine color.

Tangerine didn’t originally refer to the color or the fruit.

The fruit tangerine is an orange colored citrus fruit. The word tangerine in English predates the importation of the fruit to England in 1710. Why did the word exist before the English ever ate tangerines? The word tangerine, from the Spanish tangerino, first referred to someone or something from Tangier, Morocco.

The tangerine gained clout in the Americas.

Cultivation of the fruit tangerine traveled west in 1842 and then boomed in the Americas. An officer by the name of Major Atway imported them from Tangier, Morocco. Since “tangerine” was the adjective to describe anything from the famed Moroccan seaport, this inspired the name “tangerine” for the fruit. In common English today, only the fruit and the color tangerine lay claim to the name. The color tangerine was first used outside the context of its namesake in 1899.

The Pantone Color for 2012 was inspired by tangerine.

The Pantone Color in 2012 was a tangerine color spin-off called Tangerine Tango. The tone took classic tangerine and set it ablaze with an overlay of red, making for a red orange that is both intense and energetic. The promotion of this color gained tangerine color more notoriety and name recognition.

The color tangerine across different cultures.

The role of the color tangerine in art.

Tangerine color, like other bright hues, provokes an instant reaction. Used historically as a symbol of spiritual leadership and of royalty, the color tangerine commands authority. In Western art, the color tangerine became popular in the 1800s when synthetic orange pigments were first produced. The Impressionist era gave tangerine color greater use in landscapes often bathed in natural light.

The color tangerine in China.

Tangerine color is used in China as a symbol of good luck and health. Because of its nearness to red, it’s also used in festivities. Curiously, tangerine fruit is also cultivated more in China than any other part of the world today. Chinese tangerine production makes up 60% of the world’s tangerines.

The tangerine color iMac.

In 1999, five iMac computers were launched that gained instant favoritism. Each of the five products had a brightly colored casing with an equally appealing name: blueberry, strawberry, lime, grape, and tangerine. The tangerine color computer was said to be named “tangerine” rather grudgingly because a competitor had already copyrighted the use of “orange” for a PC.