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Why is the world losing color?

culture-critic.com

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Re: Why is the world losing color?

#51

Post by WillAdams »

Interestingly, there was a specific printing technology for expanding the palette of colour printing, Hexachrome:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexachrome

Tried several times to use it in projects, but the customer always balked at the additional plate charges, even when they _loved_ the added vibrancy and colour range.

The only printer I know of who was actually successful using it to make money was in London --- took on spot colour jobs from other printers when the spot colour was inside the expanded Hexachrome gamut, allowing for a faster turn-around (jobs on the same stock were ganged up) and no charge for washing down a press to change out the ink.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#52

Post by megmogandog »

The loss of color is concerning, but something I find interesting is the image the author chooses to illustrate Loos' quote, "We have achieved plain, undecorated simplicity." I would argue the building pictured falls short of this goal in important ways. A lot of contemporary architecture lacks the modernist commitment to flat planes, pure volumes, etc. and adds lazy and useless decorative/textural elements. The building pictured would look better if it was less adorned! (But even better with some color)

The ugliness of the contemporary world isn't a result of modernism, but rather neoliberal indifference to beauty.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#53

Post by ctrlp »

Adolf Loos designed some incredibly sumptuous interiors. They aren't lacking in color. Methinks he's being used unjustly as a scapegoat to grind some axe. To me, this essay is an example of "slop."

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#54

Post by bowsamic »

roughly wrote: post #49

One interesting thread here is the long shadow of Greek and later Roman statuary and architecture on Western European self image - the marble statues, columns, and architecture of the Roman empire were taken as the origin story for Western culture - "we were an empire built on philosophers and artists, and look at the (gleaming white) purity of their works." It turns out, of course, that all those gleaming white stat…

> the Greeks and Romans were not cultures of conformity or austerity - quite the opposite, but the seeds of the philosophy sank in hard, and here we are.

I don’t think anyone thinks they were. They are usually assumed to be hedonistic in popular culture

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#57

Post by limitedfrom »

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.

Reminiscent of halo cars in the automotive industry. Fancy flagship vehicles produced to show off the brand and bring attention (to their other vehicles), but not necessarily to become profit makers themselves.

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#58

Post by robinsonb5 »

lurk2 wrote: post #12

I’ve certainly noticed this in film and interior design (most AirBnBs will have a familiar grayscale palette), but the opposite trend has occurred in software. Windows 2000 was far less colorful than Windows 10, which in turn had a more saturated palette than Vista and Windows 7.

And Windows 11 is significantly less colourful again. Also, you're missing out the most colourful version of all - Windows XP!

(The first thing I did with WinXP was revert it to the Win2K look - restricting the use of colour to where it's useful: namely showing me which bloody window is active.)

Re: Why is the world losing color?

#60

Post by cyberax »

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.

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