Everyone who works in colour has heard of Pantone. The Pantone Matching System has been used for decades for colour specification and colour communication. This month Pantone have unveiled a new system – Pantone Plus. Apparently, Pantone Plus provides users with expanded colour sets and more intuitive selection method to help streamline the creative process. I look forward to seeing it.
I have been thinking of attending a meeting of the Color Marketing Group which is to be held in Amsterdam on 26-28th May 2010. Amsterdam is only about 45 mins by plane from Leeds so if I can get a flight I will go. It looks a really good event. For further details see www.colormarketing.org
Cricket authorities have been experimenting with pink cricket balls. A cricket match in Abu Dhabi used new pink cricket balls for a game that took place under floodlights.
The argument is that the traditional red ball used in cricket, being of a relatively deep shade is hard to see under night conditions even with floodlights. The recent experiments seem to have been a success. John Stephenson, Head of Cricket at MCC (the world’s most famous cricket club), said “We have proved that the pink ball is clearly visible in day or night conditions and that day/night first-class cricket is a viable option for cricket administrators. Certainly the pink ball itself could be improved – such as by darkening the seam so batsmen can pick up the spinning delivery – but I don’t see an insurmountable block to progress.”
It’s not a view necessarily shared by the ICC though. The ICC is the International Cricket Council. “The MCC has been great in initiating trials around the world, but before we look at these projects we need to establish up front, from a scientific point of view, what makes sense,” said Dave Richardson, the ICC’s general manager of cricket. “The balls that have been developed so far are still a long way off being able to last 80 overs,” he added. “They just get too dirty. The beauty of the red ball is that it keeps its colour even when it’s old.”
The ball shown below is a pink ball after 14 overs (that’s 96 deliveries for the non-cricket-aware colour lovers).
For further information see – http://tinyurl.com/yhak2g5
A pink ball was used for the first time in a match in England on 21 April 2008 in a match between an MCC XI and Scotland. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7352516.stm
Consider the image below:
The four grey patches in the centre of the four squares are phsyically the same. If seen in isolation (or against a common background) they would look the same. So are the grey colours the same or different?
Some people would argue the two greys are really different (this is convincing because after all they look different). However, others would argue that they are the same colour – it’s just an illusion that they look different because of the background and context. Which is right? Actually, I think both are correct. The former would be talking about perceptual colour and the latter would be talking about physical colour. Part of the reason that colour is so complex and that there seem to be so many ideas that clash is that colour is not very well defined. When people talk about colour they are sometimes talking about different things. I am wondering whether it would be really helpful to develop more formally the ideas of physical and perceptual colour.
In case on your screen the greys look more similar that they do on my screen I append another example of colour contrast below. 
In this example, there are only two physical colours (red and green) or three (if you include white). However, perceptually there are two reds and two greens.
The impressionists understood about colour contrast. If you put a colour patch on a coloured background the colour of the patch will usually change (compared to if, for example, the patch was observed on a chromatically neutral background). The colour of the patch tends to move towards the complementary colour of the background. If the background is the complementary colour of the patch then the patch becomes particularly vivid.
In Van Gogh’s cafe and night cafe paintings you can see the juxtaposition of yellow and blue and red and green. Today I came across a more contemporary application of colour theory – eye make-up!
DoWop have produced something called EyeCatcher Shadows where the colour that is applied to the eyelid is the complementary colour of the iris. To see more visit – http://www.asos.com/Duwop/Duwop-Eyecatcher-Shadows/Prod/pgeproduct.aspx?iid=1047107
A new website – www.explorra.com – allows you to pick a holiday based upon your colour preference.
I just put click on red (my favourite colour) and it suggested Spain, Africa, and Mauritania, none of which are places I have a burning desire to visit. Maybe it’s just me. Why don’t you try it!!
This site is usually about education …. but also sharing my passion for colour. I couldn’t resist posting this photo I took I’m Leeds today – the Victorian quarter.
Much was made in the media this week about the front bench of the labour party (UK) all wearing purple during the announcement of the budget. However, remarkable though it was, it is not a totally new phenomenon. On a number of occasions in 2009 and even 2008 leading figures in the government have been seen wearing purple.
In fact, even in December 2008 Zoe Williams was writing about this in the Guardian – http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/dec/08/fashion-ties-purple-gordon-brown. Zoe points out that the latest trend for wearing purple by politicians was probably started by Michelle Obama who famously wore the colour in August 2008.
Perhaps the labour politicians believe that purple represesnts a third way, halfway between red and blue (the colours traditionally associated with the left and right of UK politics respectively). Or perhaps they feel that it gives the impression of power and establishes them as the rightful winners of the forthcoming election. Purple was the colour worn by emperors and senators of course. Whatever the rationale, it is surely not a coincidence.
Can you own a colour?
The answer is almost certainly not. However, the law on colour use in branding and marketing is complex and there have been several high profile cases of companies slugging it out over the use of colour. I have previously posted about the dispute between Google and Microsoft – http://colourware.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/four-colour-primaries/.
There are two other high profile cases I know of. One is the objection by Orange (a British Telecoms company) to the use of the colour orange by Easy Jet – http://tinyurl.com/y8la766. The other is the dispute between chocolate manufacturers over the use of the colour purple in chocolate wrappers – http://tinyurl.com/y9cgyum.
However, in a paper published in the open access colour journal – Colour: Design and Creativity – Paul Green-Armytage argues that the key to many of these disputes about colour ownership lies in the definitions of colour. See http://www.colour-journal.org/2009/4/6/index.htm to read Paul’s full article.
On the 17th March this week it is, of course, St Patrick’s day. The colour green is associated with this day and with the Irish in general. Indeed, as the above picture shows, in Chicago (where there is large Irish contingent) they dye the river green ever year in celebration. However, originally the colour associated with St Patrick was blue. In Irish mythology, the sovereignty of Ireland was represented as a blue robe. St Patrick is said to have used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-christian Irish. Wearing a shamrock in your lapel became associated with celebrating St Patrick. In 1798 Irish soldiers adoptedgreen uniforms on March 17 to make a political statement.
When asked which colour is associated with being lucky I often respond with “green”. Green is associated with the Irish and there is a phrase “the luck of the irish”. However, Irish folklore holds that green is the favourite colour of the faeries; they are likely to steal people, especially children, who wear too much of the colour. So, for some Irish at least, green is an unlucky colour. In any event, even if green is associated with good luck in large parts of the western world it is not an idea that is common around the world – in China, for example, it is red that is associated with good luck.