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Why is the world losing color?

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Re: Why is the world losing color?

#151

Post by rahkiin »

> According to major auto paint suppliers, more than 80% of new cars are now grayscale. Black, white, gray, and silver dominate the roads. Reds, blues, and greens in auto production are increasingly rare.

This is biased data: when cars that are not white or black cost 1000 of euros more from the factory, and custom non-preselected colors even more, then people tend to but the cheap colors. Especially when they are corporate lease cars and the corporation doesn’t care about the color.

If car companies want more color, do not charge for it.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#152

Post by sixothree »

ryandrake wrote: post #87
JKCalhoun wrote: post #32

Wow, so much to rage about from the article. I am a huge fan of color and go out of my way to buy bright colored cars, phones, etc. (Not like I had any viable options for my MacBook Pro though). Resale value, it hides dirt well are some of the sadder excuses I hear for buying gray and "silver" cars (wouldn't be cool if they really were silver, not "metallic gray"). Meanwhile you spend your entire time owning the car…

Another thing that might also play a role is this styling trend of vehicles looking "meaner" and more and more aggressive. This was discussed[1] a bit on HN a while ago. Bright colors don't really match the "My vehicle is going to punch you in the face" styling (for cars and especially trucks) that has become popular. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32425520

Literally every vehicle seems to have that diagonal line incorporated somewhere. I mean the one generally near the windows that slopes downward as it moves towards the front of the car, regardless of the general shape of the car itself.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#153

Post by bigstrat2003 »

bluGill wrote: post #99
colechristensen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it goes one layer further, everyone is worried that everyone else is worried that colors don't sell. "I like this used bright pink Honda, but I'm worried no one else will buy it if I want to sell so I'm not going to buy it" Like it's a perceptual disease where there's a difference between real preferences and perceived preferences and people are making decisions based on their wrong assumptions about everyone…

Cars are not buy it for life items. I generally buy a 3 year old car because it is about half the price of a new one - but I'm limited to what color I can find. If I bought new cars I could get whatever color - except that new car buyers won't be seen in a 4 year old car, and they can only afford to upgrade (to the extent they can) if the car has resale value so they care about what color they (the dealer) thinks wil…

> Cars are not buy it for life items.

No, but they certainly can be "buy it for the life of the car". I prefer that myself. New cars are nice, but I'm not going to trade up to a new car every few years. I will buy new (or new-ish), and then drive it until it dies 15 years later. Much more cost effective.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#154

Post by krtkush »

jajko wrote: post #128
crazygringo wrote: post #3

It'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…

No thank you. I prefer rich colors, they consistently make world look a more lively place, the more the better. There is some getting used to of course, but it doesn't normalize at the same bottom that sea of grey/white/black is. I hate this with passion with cars - sea of grey in western Europe. Heck, both of our cars are grey - we always buy used ones and there was simply no other option that wasn't 10k more expens…

As an Indian living in a western European country - I very much prefer the gray/ neutral colors here. I always found the excessive and ugly use of color in India overwhelming. Though, I agree, a bit of more colors in winter wear would be nice.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#155

Post by 9rx »

xboxnolifes wrote: post #85
crazygringo wrote: post #3

It'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…

> 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. Based purely on intuition, I want to agree with you. However, the data in the article suggests there's been a fairly consistent decrease in color of media…

> You would expect an explosion of color in the 1960s and then a decrease

The data shows an explosion of "new" colours in the 1960s, although the trend never stopped. Technology is still no doubt the answer – including the explosion in the black to white spectrum. We aren't limited to natural colours or colours, period, like we once were.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#156

Post by r14c »

rowanG077 wrote: post #19
mempko wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars suck then. We have destroyed our environments, both natural and human made, because of them.

I don't think anyone would argue the point of cars is to look pretty or make the environment more balanced. Cars are successful in spite of looking like shit and damaging the environment.

the history of cars in the US is pretty complicated tbh. most major cities had street cars and rail systems for a long time before major government initiatives ripped them out in favor of highways and streets. I'm not sure cars would be as popular without that major push towards car-centric infrastructure.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#157

Post by asciimov »

It would be nice if cars came in Hot Wheels Spectraflame. I’m sure the greigification of automobiles is down to some spreadsheet somewhere showing them they save two nickels for offering one less color.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#158

Post by bigstrat2003 »

syndeo wrote: post #143
bluGill wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son (11 years old) always wears mismatched socks. Even when we match them in his drawer he will unmatch them (we no longer bother). I'm not sure if style has changed or he just isn't old enough to care what girls think.

Well hey, if that's his style, and he can find the confidence to "own" it, the right kind of girl will appreciate him for it. (As long as it's not too outlandish of a sock combo, ha)

Yeah, I've definitely noticed that people respond well to unusual styles as long as you wear it with confidence. For example, I sometimes wear a pocket watch when I dress up. It's not in vogue or anything, but I think they're cool and I don't really care whether or not anyone else does. The funny thing is, I've had multiple people tell me that they appreciate my pocket watch thing. I think maybe people are attracted to authenticity, when someone has the confidence to do their own thing for their own sake rather than worrying about others' opinions.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#159

Post by JKCalhoun »

ryandrake wrote: post #87
JKCalhoun wrote: post #32

Wow, so much to rage about from the article. I am a huge fan of color and go out of my way to buy bright colored cars, phones, etc. (Not like I had any viable options for my MacBook Pro though). Resale value, it hides dirt well are some of the sadder excuses I hear for buying gray and "silver" cars (wouldn't be cool if they really were silver, not "metallic gray"). Meanwhile you spend your entire time owning the car…

Another thing that might also play a role is this styling trend of vehicles looking "meaner" and more and more aggressive. This was discussed[1] a bit on HN a while ago. Bright colors don't really match the "My vehicle is going to punch you in the face" styling (for cars and especially trucks) that has become popular. 1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32425520

Mercedes lead with "silver" cars decades ago such that the color itself meant luxury. Other car manufacturers (and car buyers) then followed.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#160

Post by crazygringo »

BLanen wrote: post #78
crazygringo wrote: post #3

It'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…

> But when everything is colorful, nothing stands out. Everything being colorful is as monotonous as everything being, well, monotone. This is meaningless. "When many things are different, everything is the same". Its a sentence that seems meaningful, but actually is not. It's just abstraction without generalizing. "000000000000000000000000000" is a sequence just as something as "H90F3iJsjo$(4Opla1zSKX@)!2k" because…

I'm going to change your first example. Can you see what stands out?

"00000000qq000000000I0000000"

Now I'm going to change your second example, also by three characters. Can you see what stands out?

"H90F3iJsjo$(4ORma1sSKX@)!2k"

Is that a clearer example of what I'm trying to say? In the second example, because every symbol stands out, no symbol stands out. Or to put it more technically, noise has overwhelmed any signal.

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