Sensational Color Pro Kate Smith

Kate Smith on Color

What I'm reading, thinking about, and working on as well as where I'm appearing, what colorful events I'm attending and my personal thanks to all who are talking about what we're up to at Sensational Color.

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What can brown do for Microsoft?

21st Jul. '07 • Products & Packaging Color •

Filed as Kate Smith

From Investor’s Business Daily article “Color Me Verizon Red, T-Mobile Pink And…”

Color is the “silent salesperson,” Eiseman said. At the very least, color should create enough interest or curiosity to induce would-be buyers to find out more about a product or service, she says.

“They say a product unseen is unsold, and the same thing goes to brand logo and identification,” Eiseman said. “You have to have attention drawn to you.”

If your color comes too close to a rival’s, consumers confuse brands, Eiseman says. Worse, if a new or minor brand takes on a color close to the industry leader’s, it’s perceived as a copy, “and that is not a good connotation,” she said.

That won’t be a problem for Microsoft’s (MSFT) Zune portable media/music player, which was launched in mid-November. To go up against Apple’s (AAPL) iconic iPod, which comes in a host of bright colors, Microsoft went the opposite way. It chose brown as the central brand color, though some of its devices come in black and white.

“Certainly a color like brown in this category and in technology overall is a new, bold step,” said Steve Kaneko, Zune’s design director, who acknowledges that the move was risky. Amid all the bright and shiny tech devices on the market, brown stands out as “warm and friendly,” he said.

“People might ask, ‘Who in their right mind would produce a brown technology product?’ ” Kaneko said. Artists would, musicians would, he says. “It’s a color that makes you feel music. I think about it as an incredibly nice acoustic classical guitar.”

Brown, once nondescript, has been “repositioned,” Bredenfoerder said. It’s moved from ordinary to “grounded and stable,” a color of “sustainability.” Zune’s brown has let Microsoft find a niche in an important new trend, he adds.

Eiseman says Microsoft might have gone too far. Brown is great for UPS, (UPS) which aims to convey its down-to-earth reliability, she says. But if Microsoft wants to lure a youthful customer, brown isn’t right, she says.

“If you’re the first guys on the market, you can do anything, but not after you have a competitor that has done sensational things,” Eiseman said.

A bit of colorful Italian humor

2nd Jun. '07 • Color Humor • Tags: advertising

Filed as Kate Smith

Parental discretion advised

Italian commercials for Coloreria Italiana washing powder. Hillarious!

All Corvettes are red

31st May. '07 • •

Filed as Kate Smith

Color in Business: Corvette Red; Colour in Business: Corvette Red

Saying “All Corvettes are red” is like saying “Blondes have more fun”

Its a statement about the personality that the color implies rather than strictly the color itself.

So what is it about a Corvette that makes it “red”?

Driving a red Corvette is about getting noticed. Red shouts “Look at me!”

Vibrant red also says sexy, speedy, high-energy, and dynamic.

Is it any wonder that red Corvettes have proven to have a higher resale value than other colors and tend to sell faster then most other colors.

In 2006, two hues of red: Monterey and Victory were offered and Corvettes in these two reds accounted for about one third of all sales for the year.

If you were a Corvette wouldn’t you want to be red?

Ferrari black magic

19th May. '07 • •

Filed as Kate Smith

( Worldcarfans ) -
The Ferrari F430 already is a brilliant, eye-catching vehicle. The “look“ as well as engineering technology presents many similarities to motor sports racing. In the latter instance, most vehicles here feature a catchy paint finish in “warrior look”. HAMANN MOTORSPORT now offers the mid-engine Ferrari a special outstanding design that equally provides a racing car look standing out from the crowd. It’s called
“Black Miracle“ and will be responsible for great deal of turned heads.

HAMANN’s “Black Miracle“ designed black car body via a foil suggests the appearance of a primary base coat versus a ready-finished lacquered vehicle. It leaves an impression as if the entire car body is covered in velvet. Here as well, comes an idea directly from motor
sports racing scene where motor covers are often finished in black matt to aide drivers with glare reduction. The “Black Miracle” design by
HAMANN acts similar to a black hole absorbing all light. For the “light at the end of the tunnel” HAMANN provides additional parts following
customer preferences in brilliant red, orange or yellow finish. The contrast between black matt and each “luminizing” addition is unquestionably mesmerizing especially for countless admirers at Ferrari meetings. Such an individualized F430 entrance has never been seen
before! The highlight of the “Black Miracle“ designs: when the black matt colour doesn’t seem pleasing anymore, the foil can be easily removed.

The noted HAMANN aerodynamic kit for the Ferrari F430 in dazzling colours grasps many elements directly out of motor sports. Front impressions of the F430 “Black Miracle“ through HAMANN’s front spoiler provide a distinct racing sports face and minimize front axle buoyancy.

The wide rocker panel wings give a lowering impression. Further reminiscence of sports racing awakens at the rear end through the HAMANN diffuser and a powerful rear wing which provides more downthrust on the rear axle. HAMANN air dams for the downforce generating Venturi Tunnel boosts the effect.

Additionally included in the “Black Miracle“ design are finished aerodynamic parts in red, orange or yellow as well as coloured side mirrors and brake callipers, tinted rear lights, a coloured engine cover framing, dark tinted windows (including front window), bi-coloured leather furnishings (any choice of colour combinations), HAMANN logos within the head rests as well as the wheels finished in the colour of the aerodynamic components and with completely covered black matt rim flange.

The absolute show stopper effect with the eye-catching “Black Miracle” colour in combination to the car body is achieved with the addition of HAMANN constructed wing doors. This process is completed without compromise as HAMANN offers a completely full car body integration through guaranteed technology minus that look of actually
being built-in. In other words, this vehicle looks as if it just rolled directly off the assembly line.

Through new motronic programming including a new rear silencer plus a sporty high-performance header and sport steel catalyst, the F430 in HAMANN “Black Miracle” style has a performance increase of 36kW /50 HP which is naturally a plus for vehicle performance.

Even more driving pleasure is promised with a specially designed set of suspension springs. Through the HAMANN springs, not only does the F430 lurk lower to the ground, it also moves noticeably with more agility.

The F430 “Black Miracle” comes equipped from HAMANN with a 3-pieced, forged light weight wheel “Edition Race” in 20-inch. Available for the front axle in size 8,5 x 20 (tires 235/30-20) and for the rear axle in size 12,75 x 20 (tires 325/25-20).

One example of the ultra lightweight wheels with dimensions of 12,75 x 20 have an astounding weight of only 15,45 kg! As previously indicated, within the “Black Miracle” package HAMANN finishes a wheel spider in the colour of the aerodynamic components and rim flange matching to the car body in black matte.

Color printing

19th May. '07 • •

Filed as Kate Smith

For when you’re feeling blue
By Lesley Stones, Business Day, 19 May 2007

Print \|\| Discuss


Considering that we use colour to describe our emotions as well as to describe an object, it seems odd that actually producing that colour from a printer should be so difficult. Scientists at Xerox are trying to make it far easier by inventing a technology that lets you tell your printer exactly how blue or red you are feeling. Users will be able to say “make the sky a deeper blue” or type the instruction “make the background carnation pink” and the software will do so, Xerox promises. The patented invention is still being researched, with the aim of translating human descriptions of colour into the precise numerical codes that machines use to print colour documents. “There are many non-experts who know how they would like colour to appear but have no idea of how to manipulate the colour to get what they want,” says Geoffrey Woolfe, a principal scientist with the Xerox Innovation group. “You shouldn’t have to be a colour expert to make the sky a deeper blue or add a bit of yellow to a sunset.” Woolfe’s work means colour adjustments could be made on office printers or commercial presses without dealing with mathematics. And once you realise how colours are achieved, you will understand how difficult it is. Cardinal red on a printer or monitor, for example, is expressed by mathematical co ordinates to identify a specific region in a three-dimensional space housing all the colours the device can display. To make the colour less orange, the colour expert distorts that region to a new region. The ability to use common words to adjust colour will benefit graphic artists, printers, photographers and others who spend time fine tuning the colours in documents. Woolfe is mapping common words used to distinguish different shades to the technical language used by printers. “Colour is so prevalent that one shouldn’t have to be an expert to handle it.”

Now you see it, now you don’t

18th May. '07 • Products & Packaging Color •

Filed as Kate Smith

Behavior of light and principles of vision behind PowerPro’s newest color.
phan·tom - n. & adj. Something elusive; an illusion; a ghost or an apparition.

Fishing has become a pursuit of science as much as skill and the color of line can be the key to an angler’s success. For years, lure companies have emphasized the influence of lure colors. But where those companies use an understanding of the Beer-Lambert Law to make the lures more visible to the fish, Innovative Textiles is using it to make a braided fishing line nearly invisible.According to company president, Konrad Krauland, “I’ve often heard it said that the colors and finishes on lures are designed to catch fishermen. But PowerPro’s Phantom Red Line is designed to catch fish. Next to our product statement rounder, smoother, thinner, stronger, we can now add nearly invisible in water.”

To understand the benefit of Phantom Red, one must understand the behavior of light as it penetrates the water, because line colors do not look the same underwater as they do in air. As line descends below the surface, water absorbs the wavelengths of light selectively, one by one, as depth increases. Red is the first color to disappear, at a depth of 15 feet (which is why underwater photographers often use red filters to restore red colors in their pictures).While many factors such as total light intensity, water clarity and time of day or year can alter the depth to which colors are visible, one thing is constant: PowerPro’s commitment to the serious angler. “We have always prided ourselves on being the performance leader in the braided line market,” says Krauland. “From our additions of PowerPro Ice Line, Downrigger Replacement Cable and Hollow Core to our line up, Phantom Red continues our commitment to not only meet, but also exceed our customer’s expectations.” Right in line with the other PowerPro colors of Moss Green, Hi-Vis Yellow and White, Phantom Red is manufactured with enhanced body technology, fortifying it with the same incredible sensitivity, strength and abrasion resistance.Amazingly, most fish can see in color, even distinguish complementary colors and up to 24 spectral hues with many species possessing color vision similar to that of man. But Phantom Red gives fish a false perception of reality and its appearance becomes a mere apparition. So whether you’re fishing it in the green tinged waters of the Pacific or blue ocean waters of the Caribbean, you’ll see red, but the fish will see nothing…. And what they can’t see will catch them!

What’s your color?

14th May. '07 • Products & Packaging Color • Tags: advertising

Filed as Kate Smith

Bench ads. What’s your color?

For automotive interiors brown comes round again

12th May. '07 • Trends • Tags: Trends

Filed as Kate Smith

The AIADA newsletter reported that after decades of obscurity, brown leather car interiors are making a comeback.

The Wall Street Journal reported a growing number of auto makers areoffering coffee- or chocolate-colored hides in high-end models as well as some lower-cost vehicles.

Amid the popularity of brown-leather interiors, some makers are using the color for exteriors as well. Buick is using brown as its “lead color” for the launch of its new Enclave luxury vehicle. General Motors’ Saturn division began offering two-tone “Morocco” brown upholstery in its mass-market Aura sedan.

The company says it was surprised when 20% of buyers initially ordered the color when it introduced the car last year. The so-called take rate has since risen to 30%. Chris Webb, color designer for GM, says Cadillac for the 2008 model year will offer a combination of Mocha Metallic exterior with Cocoa interior on most of its models.

Even the budget-price Mazda 5 compact van is available with caramel-toned leather seats.

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