"Lively. Radiant. Lush… A color of elegance and beauty that
enhances our sense of well-being, balance and harmony." ~Pantone
Color is a vivid subject: the
ground where moods meet physics. The colors of a particular moment live on in
our memories.
When the fashion industry
declares that lime green is the new black, or instructs us to “think pink!,” it
is not the result of a backroom deal forged by a secretive cabal of fashion
journalists, designers, manufacturers, and the editor of Vogue. It is the
latest development of a color revolution that has been unfolding for more than
a century.
In her book, The Color Revolution, the award-winning
historian Regina Lee Blaszczyk traces the relationship of color and commerce,
from haute couture to automobile showrooms to interior design, describing the
often unrecognized role of the color profession in consumer culture.
Blaszczyk examines the evolution
of the color profession from 1850 to 1970, telling the stories of innovators
who managed the color cornucopia that modern artificial dyes and pigments made
possible. These “color stylists,” “color forecasters,” and “color engineers”
helped corporations understand the art of illusion and the psychology of color.
Blaszczyk describes the strategic burst of color that took place in the 1920s,
when General Motors introduced a bright blue sedan to compete with Ford’s
all-black Model T and when housewares became available in a range of brilliant
hues.
She explains the process of color
forecasting–not a conspiracy to manipulate hapless consumers but a careful
reading of cultural trends and consumer taste. And she shows how color
information flowed from the fashion houses of Paris to textile mills in New
Jersey. Today professional colorists are part of design management teams at
such global corporations as Hilton, Disney, and Toyota. The Color Revolution
tells the history of how colorists help industry capture the hearts and dollars
of consumers.
Regina Lee Blaszczyk
is Chair in
the History of Business and Society
at the University of Leeds and Associate
Editor at the
"Journal of Design History."
