All Color Matters

Trolling the web can sometimes steal time without us realizing it. Every so often I trip upon content that makes up for those lost minutes by being a means to enhance a more in depth class discussion. PBS (Public Broadcast System) released a 7 minute video The Effect of Color in October of last year that does a fairly good job of introducing the scope of color's influences, intent in trends and cultural implications. This quick overview teases your eye with a myriad number of images that puts you on the path to wanting more for inspiration and explanation.

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 ho...

The below is a list of notable out-of-print books in .pdf form. Each text has its own unique interpretation on color application, general theories, etc. Source: Theory and Practice of Color The oldest text of the group is Elementary Color (1895) written by Milton Bradley the same Bradley who is synonymously linked with The Game of Life , Candyland , and Battleship . This was not Bradley's first attempt into the forays of color. Prior to this publicaton he had addtionally authored Color in the Schoolroom and Color in the Kindergarten . Faber Birren’s Selling With Color is a book that ...“ has been written to be of practical benefit to modern business, to assure the effective development of consumer products, merchandising, advertising, packages, displays”. Regardless of when any of these were published, these texts still retain color standard information of which can still be found in practice today. Colour Aesthetics: Combinations of Colors with Tints and wit...

Josef Albers encouraged his students to physically engage with color in order to understand their complex relationships. In 1963 he published his landmark book, Interaction of Color, a whopping 20-pound collection of over 150 silkscreen prints with commentary. By moving and juxtaposing the prints near one another, students were able to witness how two seemingly different colors could potentially change to be exactly the same. Yale University Press marked the 50th anniversary of this celebrated book by releasing an app for the iPad of Albers’ texts and color studies. Nearly an exact digital replica of the book, (uses the original Baskerville typeface), the app contains color plates, 60 interactive studies and two hours of video interviews with designers, artists and architects including commentary from Albers as well. With more than 250 color swatches, users are encouraged to create their own custom pairings which can be exported (as RGB) for further manipulation in Illustrator or P...

If you are either an educator in need of color theory assignments, or an artist looking to exercise your color “muscle”, this text will fill that void. Color: A Workshop for Artists and Designers (2nd edition) by David Hornung offers an approach to color theory with projects that build understanding as you advance through the book. With assignments that are primarily geared toward painters, it is possible to adapt some of the lessons for use on the computer (with a little work). This is one of those a texts whose strength is not derived from historical, cultural, or psychological references. If your intent is to obtain a book that uses (only) practical approaches to cement color concepts—this one’s for you! *Note to the editors: Please correct the misspelling of Munsell’s name!

From the electric punchy hues of the 1960’s, to the sombre more minimalist colors of this decade, Pantone is synonymously linked with five decades of color forecasting. To demonstrate the wide range of color selections made over the years, Pantone created an info. graphic that documents color trends from 50 years ago, to present day. Not being limited to fashion per se, brands and social media make an appearance as well. It’s interesting to observe in retrospect, how some choices can make one question why a particular group was considered popular for it’s time (harvest gold; avocado; circa 1970)!

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...