Pantone's Color of the Year 2014: Radiant Orchid

The color pendulum swings toward a warm vibrant color choice for the upcoming New Year. Radiant Orchid possesses friendly warm overtones that allow it to “pop” on it's own or to be used as an accent to complement other hues.

Exotic and nuanced, Pantone's newest pick suggests a direction towards creativity and ingenuity. Radiant Orchid's pink undertones contain the visual punch to attract the female demographic, but will it have the same effect to spark interest in the masculine set? The real success of any color trend is its acceptance beyond the world of fashion. Will manufactures embrace the "magical" connotation and offer products in this close cousin to purple?

Keurig, the Burlington, Vt-based coffee-machine maker, has dipped their toe into committing this unique color to its two single-serving models coming out in early February. Seeing a pink coffee machine in an office environment could certainly liven up a dull kitchen area. Outfitting an entire home kitchen with Radient Orchid colored appliances could however be too over-the-top.

For years I had always felt a negative bias toward orchids. Never being one to decline a gardening challenge, I received one from a friend as a gift for my newly installed garden window. Since then I've come to admire their staying power (if cared for properly blooms can last up to 3 months) and ability to enliven any space they occupy. Radiant Orchid could prove to be a cultural game-changer if it can be seen beyond a feminine lens. Maybe the time is right to give this color it's due beyond the ranks of fashionistas and to place it in area(s) of our lives to inspire innovative thinking.

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 .

Purple for the Privileged

Murex Brandaris For centuries, the color purple was both an elusive and exclusive hue. From the time of Ceasar till the conclusion of the Byzantine Empire, purple was worn by kings and those serving in a high office or positions of influence. Rulers like Nero would sentence anyone to death who dared to wear imperial purple. The Roman emperor Diocletain however, took a more economical approach by collecting taxes from anyone who was compelled to slip on the hue. Up until the 1850’s, the arduous process of acquiring this color was more involved then its close cousin—red. Not unlike red, purple was also derived from the animal kingdom. Farmed from the Mediterranean region by the Phonecians as far back as 1500 B.C., Tyrian Purple came from the mucous secretion of a predatory sea snail’s hypobranchial gland ( murex brandaris , murex trunculus , bolinus brandaris ). The sea snails were soaked and then boiled in large vats which allowed the “juice” to be removed from the gland. It t...

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...

All Color Matters

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