Munsell’s Crusade to Instruct the Masses

We often take for granted the past work done by pioneers such as Albert H. Munsell. Painter, teacher, and inventor, Munsell created the most influential color-modeling system for its time. His efforts devised a “rational way to describe color” through the of use clear decimal notation; using hue, value, and chroma into uniform yet independent dimensions within a three-dimensional space. This idea broke with the traditional approach of identifying colors through a naming scheme, which Munsell thought was “foolish” and “misleading”.

Munsell Color System, Atlas of Color Charts.

The color system Munsell built back in the 1900’s continues to serve educators, visual artists, and the industries who depend on color matching technologies to produce their products and services.

The Munsell Color Company website has a historical overview of Munsell’s legacy as well as examples of company projects that continue to advance the process of achieving accurate color.

To peer inside the thought process Munsell used to conceive his theories, Rochester Institute of Technology has digital copies of his color diaries online for the general public to review.

Archive.org also has a digital copy of Munsell’s A Color Notation. Originally published in 1905, this text details and illustrates the Munsell's hue, value and chroma formula.

Finally a recently published Boston Globe article reports on Munsell’s international influence on color theory education and the marketplace.

Making a Color Exclusive

Logos, slogans, and colors, become synonymous with a product, company, cause or sports team over time. Studies to support consumer driven responses to color are constantly being monitored by the marketplace to maximize data on current and future color trends. Because color can stand independently of words, it is capable of being recognized on its own —devoid of any reinforced logo or text. With this in mind, should an organization strive to protect their color assets through trademark? Not unlike a logo or company slogan, colors can also be protected under the umbrella of trademark. But can these measures extend to the name of a color as well? Syracuse University filed a federal trademark for the exclusive rights to the word “orange”. From the university’s perspective it was a logical move toward protecting their sports team name (which in 2004 had been edited down from “Orangemen” to simply “ Orange ”). Even though the official filing was done in 2006, several colleges have ...

Another Pinboard to Follow

Having resisted Pinterest for about a year now, I finally dipped my toes into the virtual pool of pinboards. My apprehension was truly misdirected and I've come to find that the concept of organizing visual images/links onto a virtual board has become a great teaching tool. After covering the typical graphic design topics such as typography, and history it was a natural move to include color among the related topics. So here is a link to my All Color Matters pinboard .

All Color Matters

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