Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is the world losing color?

culture-critic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 309 posts

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#251

Post by magicalhippo »

legitster wrote: post #76

May I make a case for brown? - Brown is an extremely warm color, and sucks up all of the ugly blues from unnatural light sources - Brown pairs well with all sorts of shades and colors, just like the millennial gray and white tones - Brown can come in all sorts of shades and vibrancies, but is not as stimulating as other colors - Brown hides dirt, scuffs, and stains extremely well Humans have spent most of our history…

Reminds me of the "ugliest color"[1], the brown Pantone 448 C, selected for use on tobacco products in an attempt to dissuade purchase. However it turned out to be quite nice looking on packages[2], and at last here in Norway lead to no measurable decrease in sales[3].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantone_448_C

[2]: https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/ddB3zq/designekspertene-elsker-d...

[3]: https://www.nrk.no/nordland/fhi_-ny-design-pa-roykpakker-og-...

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#252

Post by jongjong »

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…

I think technology certainly had an effect. I remember pre-2008, the design trends were mostly centered around pushing the boundaries in terms of software capabilities. For example shiny/translucent 'pill buttons' became insanely popular as image editors became good at creating rounded corners and gradients with alpha transparency and layering them... Then eventually the trend became minimalist with a focus on simpler shapes and colors and larger fonts to make interfaces look less cluttered.

I think the duller colors we see nowadays has something to do with the ongoing minimalism trend. Minimalism is seen as professional-looking. Unfortunately, now we have the problem that brands struggle to differentiate themselves because any overly creative design risks coming across as 'unprofessional'. The balance of 'appearing unique' and 'appearing professional' has shifted towards the latter.

In a broader sense, it reflects society's shift towards increased centralization and conformity and an intolerance towards outliers.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#253

Post by cyberax »

mvdtnz wrote: post #188
cyberax wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On selected models only :( E.g. Ford doesn't offer anything brighter than muted red on their Escape vehicles. They do have brightly-colored Mustangs, but nothing else. Even Mazda doesn't offer them for all their vehicles.

Mate there are plenty of options if you want a nice coloured car.

Not if you also want an EV.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#254

Post by [deleted] »

rahkiin wrote: post #151

> 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 co…

[deleted]

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#255

Post by RandyOrion »

Interesting observation.

I prefer things with low color contrast in general, just to leave some color space for important things. Maybe this preference stems from the time I tweak color themes in IDEs.

In contrast, I also found more and more photography pieces which show vibrant colors and high color contrasts.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#256

Post by mvdtnz »

cyberax wrote: post #253
mvdtnz wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mate there are plenty of options if you want a nice coloured car.

Not if you also want an EV.

BYD does some incredibly striking colours. So does VW. Lot of excuses here when there are plenty of great colourways available.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#257

Post by jryle70 »

IshKebab wrote: post #205
BLanen wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Its a sentence that seems meaningful, but actually is not. It's perfectly meaningful. When everything is colourful you can't use colour to stand out. It's very simple. Obvious even.

> When everything is colourful you can't use colour to stand out. It's very simple. Obvious even.

Why not? Different colors stand out. Even gray on black does. They are just not colorful.

Look at this painting - [0]. Are you telling me the red tone doesn't stand out?

[0] - https://largemodernart.com/products/original-abstract-art-oi...

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#258

Post by philwelch »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #158
syndeo wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A pocket watch is the ideal level of eccentricity. A monocle would be too much.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#260

Post by hulitu »

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,

But nothing is colorful. Every damn thing is a shade of gray. It's like "50 shade of gray" fans started doing UIs.

Post reply on HN