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Why is the world losing color?

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Re: Why is the world losing color?

#301

Post by johnea »

skrebbel wrote: post #61

My 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.

I'm with you on that. I bought a used car recently, on which I got a great deal (as an EV in San Diego, I'm expecting the car to pay for itself in 5 years via gasoline savings), but it's dark grey 8-(

I'm thinking of spending another 1 or 2 $K to have it painted. The economy of the purchase is diminished by that, but hey, I have to l.ook at it everyday, and it's boring (and hard to find in parking lots, as you mention)...

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#302

Post by johnea »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #213

When it comes to things like cars and room interiors, neutral colors have a much better resale value because they appeal to people more widely. For cars, vibrant colors might mean higher insurance rates (red cars are associated with sports cars, young drivers and aggressive driving).

I've never had an insurance company ask about the color of a car...

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#303

Post by mrandish »

crazygringo wrote: post #295
mrandish wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I broadly agree with what you're saying. In my post, I was specifically addressing cases where a lack of expressive diversity in looks is a result of the factors discussed - basically the failure mode where color grading becomes a crutch instead of one part of an intentionally crafted look. In non-failure cases, color grading can be fantastically expressive and a key element in the cinematographer's toolbox. As I men…

> There are still too many productions that suffer from that default blandness due to a lack of creative intention. I just refuse to believe so many DPs really woke up passionately committed to that particular orange/teal palette as the ideal expressive vision for their current project. Ha! Indeed. Yup, agreed on all points you've made. Besides the obvious factors of time and budget, I think it's precisely the techni…

> I'm not convinced it's necessarily a lack of creativity, but more just a lack of knowledge and expertise around what's even possible.

Agreed. Great creatives are still great (and still too rare). In addition to the lack of technical proficiency and creative aspiration, I also suspect there's an element of some directors/DPs on VFX blockbusters assuming all the sensational VFX elements in the frame simply overwhelm beautifully subtle, artistically expressive in-camera cinematography or maybe make it matter less. I can't really fault them for assuming that as it's sometimes at least somewhat true (for some viewers). But then I look at an extraordinary outlier example of VFX-soaked comic book movie lensed brilliantly like The Batman compared to a typically competent example like recent live action Spiderman and realize... nope, it still matters - it's just really hard to do well and integrate with VFX. (Some good comparison examples in this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STynLl-2FqU).

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#304

Post by crazygringo »

anigbrowl wrote: post #296
crazygringo wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously it depends. A room always full of people might not need much decoration. In a private office, you might want to hang a colorful painting and have some colorful knick-knacks, or a colorful sofa. You figure out the right amount of color accents for you. But without overwhelming the senses by painting the whole room bright orange, you know?

I have had full-color painted rooms in one home or another for >20 years and have yet to get tired of it. I like having the color saturation turned up high. You have your taste, but it's not objectively correct in any way.

Sure, but my original comment was:

> Modern taste is more about more neutral-colored foundations with color accents.

Yes, there's no such thing as "objectively correct" when it comes to design. But it's where Western society currently is in terms of the design of public spaces including offices, how your realtor will advise you to redecorate when putting your home for sale, etc. And there are principles of modern design that, while not judgeable as correct/incorrect, are widely accepted as established.

So that's great you like to be bombarded with color, but I'm talking about an explanation for where society has been and how it's evolved with regard to color.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#305

Post by jryle70 »

IshKebab wrote: post #263
jryle70 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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...

Come on, I think you know what we mean and are just being pedantic. Which colour stands out here? https://business.cap.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/cap_ex...

I seriously don't know what you meant by the following:

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

My example is clearly a colorful painting, very vibrant, yet certain tones stand out. What you said is literally wrong. It's neither simple nor obvious. Spell out what you meant. Your counter example isn't obvious either.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#306

Post by ellis0n »

80% of developers on StackOverflow are unhappy and burned out and I don’t think they are thinking about colors and the brightness of life. Bored Ape has become a symbol of an era where many people's dreams have shattered and they have turned into a grey mass. The diversity of colors is a symbol of joy and freedom. The wars have swept across the world and now entire countries like Ukraine have lost all color because the colors of war are gray and black, and there are people who impose shades of gray because they are only interested in money and don’t care about colors.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#307

Post by sandspar »

efavdb wrote: post #23
c22 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A long time ago I worked at a children's toy store and among other things I was responsible for ordering and restocking the bins full of small loose toys that cost under a buck or two. A weird thing I noticed was that if an item came in an assortment of colors that included yellow, yellow was always the slowest color to sell. Often bins would end up with just yellow inventory after all the other colors had sold. But…

awesome insight. i've heard this referred to as the "site merchandising" problem. There are some products that are there to attract people / give them a choice, but they don't sell themselves.

Cafes use it too. E.g. a corner coffee shop may stock pastries that nobody buys. When people walk in "wow look at all their pastries!" And they feel good and become regulars.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#309

Post by kulahan »

cyberax wrote: post #60
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…

> I am a huge fan of color and go out of my way to buy bright colored cars This. If you look at the cars, pretty much the only "stock" bright color is red. I used to drive a grass green car (vinyl wrap), and it stood out everywhere. I wish car makers offered more color options by default.

BMW offers hundreds of colors, as do (I assume) most vendors. It’s not that they aren’t offered, so much as salesmen are simply pushing everyone towards black/white/gray because those colors are least likely to turn off a consumer. Can’t find red? Well black is very common and also looks mean!

Still, I think we’re seeing a LOT more color. From the cool khaki blue Subaru color that was so popular, to the M2 BMW in baby blue, to the Audi e-tron in purple, to the corvettes and mustangs that I rarely see in monochromatic colors.

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