Officially, the colors of UT are "burnt orange and white." Tenne might be a more accurate description of the color, heraldically speaking, than just orange—at least in this particular case.
The livery colors of The University’s athletic teams are burnt orange and white. For most remaining applications, the color is orange. It’s been described as the shade of orange painted over the entrance to the Texas Union (the student union). There was a commission in the ‘60s that examined the history of the arms and the shade of orange and the commission was unanimous that the correct color as used in the arms was orange, not burnt orange. Even tho The University visual identity page refers to the color as burnt orange, the true burnt orange is much darker than the shade of orange used by the Board of Regents as rendered on the seal and arms.
I have some notes on all of this, but since I don’t have ready access to them, you all will just have to wait for more illuminating facts!
Hugh Brady;78202 wrote:
Even tho The University visual identity page refers to the color as burnt orange, the true burnt orange is much darker than the shade of orange used by the Board of Regents as rendered on the seal and arms.
I’m not sure where "burnt orange" comes from - An orange (the fruit) burned by the sun, or what it looks like after being set on fire?
Obviously not exactly difinitive, but Crayloa uses RGB 255, 127, 73 for burnt orange
Joseph McMillan;78112 wrote:
1. It’s too hard to distinguish reliably between red, orangish-red, reddish-orange, orange, yellowish-orange, orangish-yellow, and yellow. There are similar issues with shades of purple and green, but they seem less severe.
2. Because we should all take to heart the pledge taken by Leanne Tuohey in the movie "The Blind Side": "I will not wear that gaudy orange." Those from the quadrant of the United States south of the Ohio River and east of the Sabine will know what I’m talking about.
Well said.
Another problem with orange is that a lot of heraldic artists like to depict yellow, as being the gold metal it originally was meant to be. Usually when you try to paint or draw the color gold, it could easily be mistaken for orange…if orange was more commonly used. I honestly am not a fan of purple being used either since it can easily be mistaken for blue if not done properly.
AILD;78205 wrote:
Another problem with orange is that a lot of heraldic artists like to depict yellow, as being the gold metal it originally was meant to be. Usually when you try to paint or draw the color gold, it could easily be mistaken for orange…
not very good heraldic artists then. or perhaps their scanners/cameras are inferior (my case) but while i am an average heraldic artist even i would not use an orange that appears gold. there are many shades of orange, and yellow, to use to make orange and gold. not to mention mixing them to make the color you’d like. but, i would suggest that if anyone who commissions a blazon/emblazon where the gold actually looks orange, or, the orange actually looks gold, should seek some remedy from the artist.
again, as Joe said, it can be (especially over time as all media break down with time). but, not right off the bat imo.
unless, of course, they specifically want "spanish gold" which in most paints and inks i’ve seen has a very deep, almost orange color to it, but that’s it.
One of my favorite sites for finding an example for just about any topic of discussion. From Civic Heraldry of England and Wales:
http://www.civicheraldry.co.uk/newark.JPG
Blazon given: Barry wavy of six Argent and Azure on a Chief Gules a Peacock in his pride proper between a Fleur-de-Lis on the dexter and a Lion passant guardant on the sinister Or.
But if I didn’t have the blazon, I might think the chief was orange. That is if orange were a heraldic color, which it isn’t.
this just illustrates my point. this pic is grainy. it also appears older. so it is more likely than not that the color has faded with time and the scanning job for the website is not perfect (as none of mine are). so what? because the color breaks down over time and because someone scanning it in can’t do so perfectly we should jettison the color from the heraldic pallet? that is, imo, ridiculously illogical.
i can also show cases where orange looks properly orange and no where near a red, or gold for that matter. i have pics of pieces (one on a flag, so we come back to the livery side of things 
also, one only need look at the orange and white checkerboard endzone for the UT Vols to see how orange and a metal will look just fine. it can be done and it isn’t an automatic mis-read for another color/metal…though i agree with Joe it can be.
and here’s the irish tricolor (back to flags) with orange and the arms of the holy see on it so red, gold, and orange are right next to each other. clearly not the same colors.
http://a.imageshack.us/img444/4537/flagofirelandwithholyse.jpg
if we wanted to get legalistic about it blue and green are too close to each other and so green should be removed from the pallet as well because it is found less often.
besides after looking over the coat of arms you chose to post to support your opinion it is clear the artist chose a more "orangish" shade of Gules so the "proper" (which looks nothing like a Proper peacock btw) peacock would stand out more. in this case the dark nature of the color of the "proper" peacock would not have contrasted well at all with a normal Gules and would’ve been an even worse image than the "orangish" red used…not even likely good contrast with the darker shade of Gules in the mantling. so clearly the artist was doing this intentionally. to claim it is why we shouldn’t have Orange as a heraldic color, which it already is, based off this example is not a good example to use because of that.
Donnchadh;78215 wrote:
besides orange IS a heraldic color/stain unless one is an Anglophile when it comes to their heraldic matters, but that is a topic for another thread.
Denny, I don’t think this is at all correct. Luc pointed out that, except for oranges, orange is almost unknown in Dutch heraldry, our Scandinavian friends say the same for the Nordic countries, and the Wappenfibel published by the leading German heraldic society does not list it among the heraldic tinctures. There are many colors that appear in arms that are not heraldic tinctures, but they are mainly items that we would blazon as proper, not tinctures used for fields, ordinaries, etc. Sure, there are exceptions, but they are very, very rare.
If anything, English heraldry is more open to tenny/orange than other traditions.
Donnchadh;78216 wrote:
also, one only need look at the orange and white checkerboard endzone for the UT Vols to see how orange and a metal will look just fine.
Just fine? It has all the esthetic appeal of a prison jumpsuit. In fact, that’s why Tennessee picked that color—it allows the fans and players to go straight back to their jobs with the county road gang after the game is over.
Seriously: sure, orange and white gives adequate contrast. But orange and yellow often won’t.
I think we all can come up with color combinations that, altho heraldically correct, do not have enough contrast to look pleasing. That’s not reason enough to reject a tincture. And we are all familiar, I think, with the issue of color confusion in the applied arts; for example, there are quite a few coats where the Argent was painted with silver paint that blackened with age, leading some to think the charge was Sable. So if the technology still can’t always get the color right for all time, I still think that’s not reason enough to reject a tincture.
I think it ought to rest, in some part, on its actual usage. There are two major U.S. institutions of higher education that use Orange in their coats of arms that I can name right now: The University of Texas and Princeton University. The University of Tennessee uses Orange in its seal. So, in practice in the U.S., Orange is a tincture. Period.
As a quick aside, bleu celeste is sanctioned by the English heralds now, so that argument is over as well. A very quick search thru Rietstap shows that Orange was not limited to depicting items that were orange in nature. For example, a coat for Dupont is blazoned as "D’orangé, à une croix de Malte de sable. Ou: De gueules, à une chaîne d’or," or Orange, a Maltese cross Sable.
The fact that Orange is in use in the U.S., just as Copper (Cuivre) is also used in the Arizona state flag to me seems to me to be the most persuasive. Just as this Society has pointed out that heraldic practice in the U.S. is different from European practice and published a set of standards to that effect also tilts me towards slightly enlarging the heraldic palette in this country.
Hugh Brady;78223 wrote:
As a quick aside, bleu celeste is sanctioned by the English heralds now, so that argument is over as well. A very quick search thru Riestap shows that Orange was not limited to depicting items that were orange in nature. For example, a coat for Dupont is blazoned as "D’orangé, à une croix de Malte de sable. Ou: De gueules, à une chaîne d’or," or Orange, a Maltese cross Sable.
So is orange properly a color or a metal? In the UT arms it seems to serve as a color (white star, a wreath proper) and here it would seem to serve as a metal (black cross).
Donnchadh;78218 wrote:
if we wanted to get legalistic about it blue and green are too close to each other and so green should be removed from the pallet as well because it is found less often.
Except that blue and green aren’t that close. That’s why the three colors in the web pallet for your computer screen are Red Green Blue. All the other colors you see on that glowing screen in front of you are made from combinations of those three.
Quote:
besides after looking over the coat of arms you chose to post to support your opinion it is clear the artist chose a more "orangish" shade of Gules so the "proper" (which looks nothing like a Proper peacock btw) peacock would stand out more. in this case the dark nature of the color of the "proper" peacock would not have contrasted well at all with a normal Gules and would’ve been an even worse image than the "orangish" red used…not even likely good contrast with the darker shade of Gules in the mantling. so clearly the artist was doing this intentionally. to claim it is why we shouldn’t have Orange as a heraldic color, which it already is, based off this example is not a good example to use because of that.
I’d say they got pretty close on the peacock for a stylized painting. And, of course the artist chose an orangish shade of Gules to go better with the charges. If orange were a standard heraldic color, he wouldn’t have had the artistic freedom to do that because what he chose would have been too indistinguishable. But, as it were, it isn’t, and he did.
