COLOR ORIGINS: The Pantone Color Chip

Computers forever changed the way graphic designers create their work. When it comes to color selection however, the low tech method still applies.

Having a standard practice for creating color for the print industry (regardless of country of origin) was a task not easily solved prior to the 1960’s. Lawrence Herbert pondered this issue while producing a retail display card for a client.

Herbert’s solution not only influenced how color was conceived for print, but has since spread to industries such as textiles, food science and industrial design. Read more...

Color and Design

Not a book for light reading, Color and Design will satisfy any design practitioner, or scholar seeking to gain a more expanded view of how humans respond to color. Editors Marilyn DeLong and Barbara have curated a selection of essays which are organized into subjects ranging from color psychology to marketing and trend influences. Since these are essays, the reader should not expect this book to offer a cultural analysis of primary/secondary colors nor an explanation of basic color theory. What the text does offer is specific examinations on various topics that center around sociological approach of how color is assimilated within a culture, its art, folklore and consumerism. Outwardly this can seem to be a real bore. I did however find a pearl or two that can potentially be assigned as required reading for my students. For example in Part III: Markets and Trends , I found an informative essay by Alex Bitterman ( Color the World: Identifying Color Trends in Contemporary Ci...

History: What’s in a Name?

There are many color dualities—and orange is no exception. Used as both a noun and adjective, no English word exists to serve as a true rhyme for orange. It is the only color of the spectrum whose name was taken from a fruit, the well-known orange ( citrus sinensis ). Coming from a evergreen tree, oranges are among the most grown fruit in the world, and because the tree is ever bearing, the color orange became associated with fruitfulness. Having passed through many languages, the word initially got its start from the Dravidian root for ‘fragrant’. It was then interpreted in Sanskrit, and then made its way among Persian , Armenian , Arabic, Latin, Italian, Old French dialects before making its first appearance in English in the 14th century. Before 1542 “yellow-red” ( geoluhread) was the word used to describe the color before the fruit and color were synonymous. The etiology for the first place named Orange may be estranged from the word, but is no less symbolic in meani...

Crunching Web Color Palettes Down to a Strip

It's always refreshing to happen upon a web-related project that gives you pause to consider the thought that goes into building website color schemes. From a user's perspective, website color can set the tone of the content, maintain a brand, or reinforce navigational flow. Interaction designer Ri Liu and web developer Bo Jeanes created a website webcolourdata.com that showcases the current color palettes in use among some of the most popular websites. By condensing each website to a strip of hues you can begin to notice established themes that go beyond the expected "eye candy" reaction. I also found the breakdown of color for each website (accessed by clicking on each website color strip) an interesting approach to analyzing the use (by percentage) of each hue with their corresponding hex value. For user interface designers this site offers a chance to see what's been done by some ubiquitous websites while potentially being a place to pause and borrow a ...

All Color Matters

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