The 2020 study this is based on: https://lab.sciencemuseum.org.uk/colour-shape-using-computer...
And there was already a very similar article last year: https://uxmag.com/articles/why-is-the-world-losing-color
Why is the world losing color?
111–120 of 309 posts
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#112It's not "losing" color. At periods when technology resulted in new color possibilities, people went overboard with color. Make all the things colorful!! Think of the technicolor sixties. And we can go back in history and see the same thing with new clothing pigments, new paint pigments. But when everything is colorful, nothing stands out. Everything being colorful is as monotonous as everything being, well, monotone…
> Modern taste is more about more neutral-colored foundations with color accents. Don't paint a whole room green -- have a gorgeous green plant that stands out all the more against its neutral background. Don't paint a whole wall orange -- have a beautiful orange-hued piece of art on the wall. It's just more tasteful to use color as one element, along with size, shape, texture, and so forth.
I don't consider this to be a be-all, end-all of design, but I appreciate that designs following this approach can be stunningly beautiful. That said, this is not the problem. The problem is, what happens these days, someone films your room with that "gorgeous green plant that stands out all the more against its neutral background" and... color grades the shit out of color, making it near pitch-black on non-HDR TVs (and most computer screens) and merely grey with tiny amounts of trace color on HDR TVs.
This is the problem - or at least its TV aspect. That Napoleon example was spot on - most movies these days look like the right half, whereas anything remotely approaching realism would make it look like the left half. And TFA correctly notices the same washing out of colors is happening to products and spaces in general (which means double trouble when that's filmed and then color-graded some more).
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#113Why is nobody talking about how Car Insurance is typically higher with any real colour selections? Insurance companies calculate that vehicles with certain colours (for example, Red) have a higher statistical probability of being in a collision than say... grey. This has created a downward pressure for people who would like colours in their vehicles, but would instead prefer to just pay less in car insurance since they may be aware of this aspect.
I for one don't like that car insurance companies do this, but this very likely is a huge reason why fewer people buy vehicles with colour beyond Grey/etc.
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#114My wife convinced me that we should buy a dark gray car cause it would be less obviously dirty. I deeply regret not trying harder to convince her back, so we'd get a bright red or yellow one instead. It's super hard to find the car back on a parking lot and who cares when it's dirty? Bright colors are nice. I'm now trying to compensate by only buying colorful clothing going forward.
You can buy vinyl wrap for cheap and DIY install is possible. (professional install is expensive). I'm not sure how good they are, but it is your best option if you want color.
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#115I play boardgames. I am also visually imppaired. So for me functionality is a massive issue. Readability is a massive issue. Being "pretty" is not an issue.
In this class of games, it's common for a game to be printed, possibly have several printings, and then go out of print. For particularly sticky games, they may come back with a reprint or redesign years later. And I've noticed going back decades that the redesign almost always replaces bold, functional, high-contrast designs for low-contrast, "realistic", "pretty' designs. Examples:
- Brass: original [1] vs redesign [2]
- Titan: original [3] vs redesign [4]
- Saint Petersburg: original [5] vs redesign [6]
I don't know why this is but part of it comes down to people wanting to add "value" by changing things rather than just reprinting them. But why go "realistic"? I think there's a pervasive idea in this space that "realism" is good. So that's a trend.
Cars go beyond color. Cars become a white or other neutral color because it's the least potentially "offensive". Car makers want the largest possible market. Plus companies like Hertz want this kind of car. But look at cars from the 1950s through 1980s and on top of color you have a lot of cosmetic design choices that we don't have now because they're less aerodynamic but, more importantly, cheaper.
In a way, the car ceased to become an object of expression. Instead for many people it's just pure utility. So the designs became utilitarian. You may disagree because people are very opinionated on what cars they prefer but I think that just expresses brand preferences not aesthetic choices.
Chain restaurants also exhibit this trend. Compare McDonald's from the 1980s vs now. A lot of fast food restaurants are now much harder to distinguish.
[1]: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4265429/brass-lancashire
[2]: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1278376/brass-lancashire
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I learned about teal-orange LUTs I started seeing them everywhere.
It's fun watching Marvel's catalogue from start to current. They really went all-in early on, then the mode-du-jour changed and it's almost obvious how hard they avoid it (a lot of red and green lights for example). Interfaces, weaponry and engines are always egregious in that franchise. I remember Midsommar being another particularly bad example - the entire apartment set in the opening scenes is dressed in orange/t…
I enjoyed Midsommar's overuse of orange/teal because it really led to the feeling that the viewer was on a psychedelic trip (which usually comes with oversaturating of reds and orange.) Agree that Marvel is doing a lot of trend chasing in its color grading.
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#117> It’s not just cars — a study of over 7,000 objects in the UK’s Science Museum found that the colors of consumer goods have been steadily neutralized since 1800. Bright, saturated tones have been giving way to gray, beige, and taupe for centuries.
That is... not what that first chart ("Percent of pixels") shows? Much the opposite — reddish beige to taupe dominated the 1800s and slowly dwindled to ~20% by 2020. Meanwhile, greens and blues became a lot more common from 1960 onward.
To this article's credit, it does acknowledge the shift towards industrial materials, but it's still worth reading the article [0] where this chart originates. The nature of photographing objects contributes to the wider range of brown hues in older objects:
> The wide range of colours in the telegraph comes in large part from the mahogany wood used in its construction. But the colours also come from its shape (the rounded pillars reflect light and create shadows) as well as its age (the wear and tear creates colour variations).
whereas more recent objects trend toward smaller sizes and homogenous materials that photograph more evenly:
> In contrast, the metal and plastic materials in the iPhone give much less variation. It also has a more basic shape and is in better condition.
The pure grayscale band at the top of that chart has expanded significantly, but (variation in beige-ishness aside) can you really say that the left side of the graph is much less homogenous?
[0] https://lab.sciencemuseum.org.uk/colour-shape-using-computer...
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#118Why is nobody talking about how Car Insurance is typically higher with any real colour selections? Insurance companies calculate that vehicles with certain colours (for example, Red) have a higher statistical probability of being in a collision than say... grey. This has created a downward pressure for people who would like colours in their vehicles, but would instead prefer to just pay less in car insurance since th…
I think this is a myth (at least in the US). I don't even have to provide the color of my car to get an insurance quote.
The exception (maybe the source of the myth) is that cars with custom or exotic colors will cost more if you opt for comprehensive coverage.
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, my theory was that the yellow ones caught people's eye since it stood out from the visual clutter, but yellow isn't anyone's favorite color, so you end up buying blue or red...
As someone who's own{s|ed} 2 yellow cars (A Mercedes SLK230 and a Mustang MachE) This makes me sad. I've also owned 3 red cars and one blue one so my color choices aren't exactly in line with the sales data.
Taxis took over the color yellow unfortunately.
Re: Why is the world losing color?
#120Wait, his "graph" measures a greater gamut of colors in photos from the nineteenth century when they were all B/W? Who's still buying this retvrn hucksterism?
The graph is from a study of objects held in the collection of a museum, not photographs by year they were taken. It says so in this article.
https://lab.sciencemuseum.org.uk/colour-shape-using-computer...