Readymag Design Almanac: Color

We are constantly exposed to color, but most of the time our consciousness remains relatively monochromatic. We tend to ignore color nuances and fail to analyze the effects of color combinations. We allow ourselves to react reflexively to color when, in fact, the ability to discern color nuances and understand color combinations takes enormous effort in order to achieve the necessary ‘expansion of the angle of sight,’ as Russian avant-garde painter and color explorer Mikhail Matyushin has put it.

Information about color psychology and color theory is widely available. We are surrounded by numerous texts on the subject, but the abundance and availability of knowledge does not ensure that it will be used or used well. A designer is both a protector of the environment and a great manipulator of it. Unlike the artist, the designer primarily deals with pragmatic tasks that directly affect the everyday world. Obviously then the designer must be constantly alive to color and should have a personal commitment to its study and the search for precisely right combinations.

For this chapter on color from the Readymag School, we have asked five renowned designers and a photographer to reflect on how they use color in their work and to share their sources of inspiration.

One of the things that inspires me now is the infinite range of colors. For me, color is as significant as music. And when I think about music the vocabulary is so huge: Indian music, Mexican music, the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Beethoven, Bach — I mean it’s infinite.

What there is to notice is so extensive. It has really to do with your mood, to what extent you are open or to what extent you have the patience for it. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by what there is to notice. The ability to notice color is a kind of muscle; exercise that muscle and you will see far more colors than you ever believed existed. There are lots of things that wake you up to take notice. For example, if you order vanilla ice cream in a cafe you may not notice its color, but there are many colors of vanilla ice cream. Just to go out in the street is sometimes amazing. There’s always a dog or a cat whose color you’ve never seen before, or somebody has thrown away a tin and it’s shining in the sun. Color is everywhere and the question only is how much you notice it.

Look at the street — buildings don’t change color very much; they do a bit because of the light obviously. But the clothes people wear are affected by fashion. Maybe in metropolitan cities more than in provincial cities — I don’t know. But if I go into Regent Street in London, I may notice that the color of the street has changed because of the fashion, the clothes people are buying. I imagine that last year more people were wearing black than five years ago, when they were probably wearing more grey and blue.

It’s very important for designers to push the capacity to notice, to see more than they thought possible. And this is certainly true with color. It’s also very important to push your ability to put yourself in the shoes of other people. Like any form of exercise, the more you do it, the stronger you get. Your clients may not be good at noticing, but you should notice on their behalf. There are millions of ways we can improve life for each other, but you can only start to use your imagination if you are a good noticer.

Here’s an example that happened to me recently — a new and very, very elegant restaurant called the Delaunay opened in London. For a week the restaurant was open only for friends, and all sorts of people came and gave the owner their opinions. He asked me for my opinion. And I said, I’m concerned about your tablecloths because they are linen. Linen has a texture and because of this texture there are millions of little grey holes. And because of the texture of the fabric, there are thousands of little shadows.

The effect of that is that the light from above shining on the tablecloths does not reflect up to the people. So the people do not look bright; with the light coming from above, they look tired. They don’t have light from below to make them look awake — which is why most tablecloths are made of cotton. The point of a tablecloth is to be a nice thing to look at but also to reflect light onto people’s faces. So if you make it out of linen it does not work. My friend said, Oh god, I just spent $20,000 on my tables! And he did not change the tablecloths.

If you ask an English company to send you their paint colors, they probably will have three whites. And if you ask a Japanese company to send you their paint colors, they will probably have a hundred whites. But even that’s not enough! For example, if I’m working with designers and they are looking in a Pantone book for a green, I will say, Look, go out with a watercolor box into Regents Park because you will find a million greens. And Pantone has only 10.

Michael Wolff

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Michael Wolff is a highly regarded British designer, co-founder of Wolff Olins — one of the world’s most iconic and reputable design companies. Michael has worked as a graphic designer and art director in the sphere of corporate branding for over 50 years. His clients include Audi, Renault, Volkswagen, Citibank, Citigroup, Shell and BP. Michael, who studied to be an architect, worked as an interior designer and product designer early in his career, but in 1965 he joined forces with businessman Wally Olins and switched to graphic design. Michael was the first to use images of animals in contemporary branding and by the end of the ‘60s had revolutionized graphic design in the field.