So, I got this idea the other day, right? My niece is a massive Portland Thorns fan, and her birthday’s rolling around. I figured, hey, I’ll try to whip up something custom for her, maybe paint a small canvas or design a cool graphic she could put on a t-shirt. Seemed like a straightforward plan, or so I thought at first.
The very first thing I needed? The actual official Portland Thorns colors. Sounds dead simple, but you’d be surprised how tricky that can get. I mean, “red” and “black” are the obvious ones everyone sees, but which specific shade of red? Is it a bright, almost neon red? Or is it a deeper, more classic red? And the black, well, is it just plain old black, or something with a hint of another color? Teams can be really particular about their branding shades, you know?
My first attempt was just eyeballing it from pictures I found online. Tons of jerseys, fan scarves, action shots. My computer screen probably wasn’t helping much, as every photo made the colors look a little bit different. In one image, the red looked almost like a dark orange, and in another, it was super deep, almost like a wine color. This clearly wasn’t going to be a ‘wing it and hope for the best’ kind of situation if I wanted it to look genuinely Thorns-like.
My Little Color Investigation
Alright, I decided I needed to dig in a bit more seriously. My initial thought was to check their official team website. Often, big organizations have brand style guides or something similar publicly available, but I couldn’t find any quick PDF downloads with color codes listed. Just my luck, right? Things are rarely that easy when you actually need them to be.
Then it hit me – logos are usually super consistent with colors. I managed to find a nice, high-resolution version of that iconic Thorns logo, the one with the rose. I fired up some basic image editing software I have – nothing too professional, just a simple program that has an eyedropper tool. I started clicking around on different parts of the red in the rose, and then on the black sections.
This is where things got a tad more complicated. The red in the logo wasn’t just one single, flat red. Because of the way the logo is designed with shading and highlights, the eyedropper tool was picking up a whole bunch of slightly different red shades. The same thing happened with the black; sometimes it appeared more like a dark charcoal gray, especially depending on the lighting in the specific image I was sampling from. A bit frustrating, I won’t lie!
I figured my best strategy was to try and identify the most dominant, truest-looking red and black. I took several samples from what appeared to be the main, solid red in the rose petals. I also spent some time looking closely at official merchandise like scarves and hats to see what felt like the ‘core’ red they used most consistently. It’s definitely a strong, really solid red. It doesn’t lean too much towards orange, nor is it too maroon or burgundy. It’s just a classic, powerful red. Almost like the color of a really ripe strawberry, if you can picture that.
And the black is pretty much what you’d expect: a deep, solid black. It’s clearly there to make that vibrant red really stand out and pop. It’s a great combination, very bold and instantly recognizable.
I also noticed while I was looking that on some of their designs, particularly around the team crest, there’s often an accent of a kind of dark, foresty green. It’s not always the main feature, but it’s definitely present in their branding. It makes a lot of sense, really, given Portland’s nickname as the Rose City and Oregon’s whole landscape with the forests and nature. It’s a nice subtle touch, I think, and adds a bit of extra depth to their look. And sometimes, I’d see a tiny flash of gold or a very specific metallic silver used for small details or special editions, but the main workhorses are absolutely that strong red and the solid black.
Trying to Use What I Found
So, after all that clicking, comparing, and squinting at my screen, I finally settled on a couple of digital color codes that felt like the real deal. I jotted them down on a piece of paper, feeling like I’d cracked some kind of important code. One for the red, one for the black. I even picked out a shade of green that seemed to match those accents I’d spotted.
- The Red: I was aiming for something truly vibrant and full of energy.
- The Black: Just a good, solid, no-nonsense black.
- The Green Accent: A deep, rich forest green.
Truth be told, I haven’t actually made the gift for my niece yet. I’m still in the brainstorming phase, you know how these creative projects go. But at least now I feel confident that I’ve got a handle on the authentic Portland Thorns color palette. It’s quite funny, really. You see these team colors all the time on TV or in photos, but you don’t truly see them, not really, until you try to replicate them accurately yourself. You start to notice all the tiny variations and how the colors are designed to work together.
It ended up being a bit more of a deep dive than I expected for a casual afternoon, all just to figure out a couple of colors. But hey, that’s often how these little personal projects unfold, isn’t it? You start with what seems like a simple idea, and before you know it, you’ve become a temporary, self-proclaimed expert on the specific branding shades of a professional soccer team. All part of the adventure, I suppose!
