Inorganic pigments offer excellent potential because of their resilience in a variety of environments, and high-reflectance near-infrared (NIR) pigments are a useful tactic to reduce the heat island effect. Nonetheless, the design of inorganic pigments is still dominated by serendipity, and it has never been easy to come up with logical designs for NIR reflective inorganic pigments. By modifying the coordination environment of Ni