Pantone Announces Colour of The Year 2012
On pantone.com the rationale behinds this colour choice reads:
The 2011 color of the year, PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle, encouraged us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. Tangerine Tango, a spirited reddish orange, continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward.
“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”
Tangerine Tango is a very visual word, although tango is traditionally associated with a deep red (combined with black), more so than an orange colour.
Off course this announcement works as a marketing stunt for Pantone it self, but never the less, the previous colours of the year have featured prominently in fashion and design thorughout that particular year. See for yourself!
Branding Santa
As colour increases brand recoqnition by 80%, many brands try to claim ownership of one specific colour or a colour combination. One of the most succesfull brands in the world to do this is Coca Cola and their ownership of the colour red.
Coca Cola is in fact responsible for the red and white colour of Santa Claus. Santa was originally seen in mostly green, blue or auburn garments. But in 1931 the illustrator Haddon Sunbloom was briefed on creating a specific Coca Cola version of Santa for their christmas campagin. Sunbloom used one of the Coca Cola sales reps as a model for the rotound and jolly Santa Claus and painted him in the Coca Cola brand colours.
What started of as a branding excersize has now become a tradition. Today we can’t imagine that Santa Claus is any other colour than red and white.
To the rigth the ad in its entirety.
Transparency
I once worked at a studio specialising in design for broadcast. During briefs the clients often asked for “colour and movement”. A sure thing for design that is already animated across a TV screen.
But colour does have the power to create depth and movement even on one stingle still frame – sometimes to the point of deception. The degree of subtle grading of colour from lighter to darker hues – or from dim to bright colours that depth and movement is achieved. Using degrees of neutral or subtle colours will further enhace the 3D feel.
Have a look at these beautiful examples of transparency and depth from some of my colour students: Nanna, Benedicte and Anja.
HOLI FESTIVAL
“If wishes come in rainbow colors then,
I would send the brightest one to say Happy Holi.”
( Typical Happy Holi text message.)
Holi is celebrated in February or early March India, Pakistan and Nepal. Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of ‘good’ over ‘bad’. The colorful festival bridges the social gap and renews relationships. On this day, people throw coloured powder and hug and wish each other ‘Happy Holi’.
The festival does not recognizes any bars of caste, class or creed. Drenched in colours, everybody comes to resemble each other losing their original self. This is the beauty of this festival. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that this festival treats everybody as equals, all differences dissolve in the coloured water that flows in plenty in it.
Holi calls to put an end to any hard feelings that might have cropped up during the year. People apply colour and give each other a friends hug as they greet Holi, the tradition is called, ‘Holi Milan’. It is strongly believed that even enemies turn friend on the day of Holi.
Usually, after a heavy and energetic day of colourful Holi people dress themselves in new clothes and visit friends and relatives with a packet of sweets. This exchange of sweets helps to strengthen and bring joy in relationships.
The tradition of the Colour Festival as a fun and creative idea has spread all over the world such as at the Swiss Club in Cairo, Egypt, celebrating Holi in the month of september.
Have a look here at some amazing photos from the Holi festival 2011.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/holi_the_festival_of_colors.html
Don’t be surprised if the quick Lüscher colour test is accurate!
The Lüscher colour test is a psychological test invented by Dr. Max Lüscher in Basel, Switzerland. He believed that sensory perception of colour is objective and universally shared by all, but that colour preferences are subjective, and that this distinction allows subjective states to be objectively measured by using test colours.
Lüscher believed that because the colour selections are guided in an unconscious manner, they reveal the person as they really are, not as they perceive themselves or would like to be perceived.
The Italian Studio, Density Design, manages to show complexity of modern life in visually interesting ways, by using vibrant colours and elegant graphics. Never has city budgets looked more attractive!
2009 This is Living! The map defines the actors, the streams of responsibility, needs and bureaucracy through the citizens and the town council of Milan, with a specific focus on how the city budget is managed.
On May 28 2011 Olafur Eliassons rainbow was launched on top of Danish museum of contemporary art, Aros. The rainbow was three years in the making and the whole construction of the building had to be reinforced to carry the heavy steel and glass structure.
It is your chance to walk around inside a giant rainbow, surround your self with the colour spectrum and get a sense of how the different colours feel for you.
Personally I loved seing the rainbow in the sunshine from the outside of the roof. Beautifull!
A note of warning: the walk might not be for the museum goer who sufferes from vertigo.
One of my favourite graphic design studios is HELMO located in France. They work with primary bold colurs in such a playfull manner – creating unique and stunning designs. Such as this series of posters for a stret art festival.
Feeling Neutral
The last few years a lot of grey has appeared in clothing and design. Trend specialist will say it has to do with a collective feeling of uncertainty. With not wanting to make any bold statements. Grey is neutral! But it is also linked to the reappeareance of metalics in fashion – grey is the simpler colour version of metal: Iron, steel, silver. Or with the connection to natures own grey colours found in rocks and stones.
Technical aspects of grey
Grey is termed neutral as it does not have any colour value as such. It does not give out any energy that way you can get energized from more saturated colurs i.e. Red og blue, green, yellow. This is why some find grey dull. Medium grey is traditionally used to measure the right light by photographers and also why a standard computer screen is medium grey.
Grey can be seen as degrees of black. The darker the grey, the ‘heavier’ it feels. But grey does not have the dramatic feel of black.
The same grey square appear different depending on it’s background colour:
This is because grey interacts with the colours that sounds it, generating what is called simultaneous contrast. A physiological phenomenon of the human vison, where by our brain will add the complementary colour to the neutral. The gray in the red square might have tinge of green to it. A grey colour in a yellow square appears slightly violet and a grey inside a blue square appears warmer more golden. Even it is the same gray.
Historical aspects of grey
Grey has historically been the colour of the poor. Previously coloured garments were expensive and for the wealthy. Some colours were even forbidden for the commoner i.e. Purple was only to be worn by royalty!
Grey has associations to:
Interestingly grey is not associated with a flavour or a scent.
Grey within religion
The Fransiscan monks wore grey cloth cowl – and in Denmark were called the grey brothers. (“Gråbrødrene”).
In the Bible the saying: “To be dressed in sack and ash”. It means to be humble and repent ones sins. In mideveal ages ash was spread over the sinners head at church, when he made a confession. It was taken litterally by the true believers, who was to live the joyless life of a beggar, dressed in a rough sack, covered by the grey dirt from the ash pile.
Ash is a symbol of death i.e. the English ritual: “From ashes to ashes, dust to dust…”
Grey Elegance
“Less is more”
Perfect for understatement, neutral colours are used in luxery products.
Grey Products
Most electronics, mobile phones and computers (Except for Apple computers that came up with the colourfull range of the Imac in the late 90s) are shades of grey, white or black. Perhaps due to the materials used. Perhaps initially as a way of making simple plastic appear more sophisticated – like real metal.
Words, Language
Earl Grey tea is named after the Charles 2nd Earl Grey (1764-1845) when he was given a Bergamot flavoured tea as a present.
My name is Ulla Korgaard and I work and teach within the field of graphic design.
I am based in Copenhagen, Denmark, but lived in Australia for 10 years where I achieved my degree in Design, Visual Communication, from University of Technology, Sydney in 1994. Since then I have been working on a broad range of visual communication projects for a variety of clients.
My attitude to design is creative and strategic. Effective graphic design is a means to uniquely communicate and convey the right message to the relevant audience.
Designeriet is where I work with visual communication, books, branding and colour.
Designeriet
Farvergade 2, 4 sal
1463 København K
Denmark
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