15 Bauhaus Color Palettes for Design Projects

Bauhaus design is instantly recognizable by its bold use of primary color, geometric confidence, and disciplined restraint. Below are 15 color palettes inspired by the Bauhaus school’s approach to color theory — each with ready-to-use hex codes for web design, branding, and print projects that want to borrow from this century-old design language.

The Bauhaus Approach to Color

Founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus school treated color as a subject of serious study rather than decoration. Instructor Johannes Itten developed a color wheel and theory of contrasts that shaped how students at the school approached color for the rest of the 20th century. Wassily Kandinsky, who taught at the Bauhaus from 1922, famously paired the three primary colors with three basic shapes — red with the square, yellow with the triangle, and blue with the circle — arguing that color and form carried an inherent, almost psychological relationship. This is why Bauhaus-inspired palettes lean so heavily on red, yellow, and blue, balanced against black, white, and grey.

15 Bauhaus Color Palettes

1. The Primary Trio

The purest expression of Bauhaus color theory — the three primary colors with no dilution, grounded by black.

2. Kandinsky’s Circle, Square, Triangle

Built directly from Kandinsky’s color-shape theory, with a soft ivory standing in for the canvas itself.

3. Weimar Workshop

A slightly warmer, earthier take referencing the school’s early Weimar years before its move to Dessau.

4. Dessau Facade

Inspired by the glass-and-steel curtain wall of the Bauhaus Dessau building, dominated by cool neutrals with a single red accent.

5. Itten’s Contrast

Named for Johannes Itten’s theory of simultaneous contrast, pairing a vivid orange against a deep blue.

6. Herbert Bayer Universal

Inspired by Herbert Bayer’s typographic posters and his geometric “Universal” typeface, built on strong black-and-yellow contrast.

7. Anni Albers Weave

A softer, textile-inspired palette drawn from Anni Albers’ work in the Bauhaus weaving workshop, mixing muted red with warm neutrals.

8. Schlemmer Stage

Referencing Oskar Schlemmer’s Triadic Ballet costumes, combining a theatrical magenta-red with cool blue and gold.

9. Steel & Red

A nod to Marcel Breuer’s tubular steel furniture designs, pairing industrial grey with a single bold red accent.

10. Homage to the Square

Inspired by Josef Albers’ later color-study series, using nested warm tones to explore how colors shift against one another.

11. Black, White & Grey

A strict neutral system for projects that want Bauhaus geometry and structure without any color at all.

12. De Stijl Crossover

Bauhaus color theory overlapped heavily with the Dutch De Stijl movement; this palette leans into that shared language of primaries and black grid lines.

13. Bauhaus Pastel Study

A softened variation for projects wanting Bauhaus geometry with a gentler, modern feel — same hues, lifted lightness.

14. Mies Minimal

Named for Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s “less is more” philosophy, restricted to a single warm neutral against black and white.

15. Bauhaus Centennial

A modern, saturated take developed for the school’s 2019 centennial celebrations, balancing all three primaries with a warm off-white.

How to Use Bauhaus Color Palettes

Bauhaus palettes work best when one color is allowed to dominate rather than splitting attention evenly across all three primaries. Use white, black, or grey as your base, let one primary color carry buttons and key actions, and reserve the remaining two for small geometric accents — dots, bars, or shape outlines — echoing the way Bauhaus posters and textiles used color sparingly against large areas of neutral space.

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