The color possibilities, as of now, are candy apple red, lime green, platinum, black, and white.
Other potential colors being talked about, that may join or replace those colors, are light blue, navy blue, and pink.
So, what color Wii would you pick?
See www.wiicolors.com for more information.
Today at the CMG conference our keynote speaker was Dorothy Kalins and her topic was:
Falling in Love Again…An insider’s look at retro-trends: why we love what we loved before and what we’re likely to love again in the future
With wit and humor Dorothy took us on the journey of the baby boomers and the many faces their collective persona has worn and how even now forty years later they are still in love with their childhood and the things that remind them of those days and experiences.
I especially enjoyed her example of how the chocolate chip cookie regained popularity. She shared that as the boomers experiencd the stress of the working world they sought to find the same feeling of comfort they had experienced as a child. Eating home baked tollhouse cookies was one of those comforts. Thanks to Famous Amos they were able to have chocolate chip cookies without the trouble of baking them and thus could recreate those yummy feelings of their youth.
Her talk had many of us nodding and smiling as we recognized ourselves in one…or many…of her examples. What a delightful speaker!
More about Dorothy–
Dorothy Kalins was the founding editor-in-chief of Metropolitan Home , which won the National Magazine Award for general excellence in 1990. She became the first woman ever named Adweek’s Editor of the Year. In 1999, she was awarded the prestigious Matrix Award for her work in magazines.
Kalins founded Saveur in 1994, and served as editor-in-chief for both Saveur and its relaunched sister publication, Garden Design, until 2001.
She then joined Newsweek as executive editor, where she helped rethink and redesign the magazine, working on all editorial aspects of the publication. In the spring of 2006, Kalins became a contributing editor to Newsweek, writing and editing, primarily in the areas of health, food and design.
14th Oct. '07 • Brand, Trademark or Signature Color • Tags: Books on Color, brand, CMG
Filed as Colorful events
Our keynote speaker at the CMG Conference today was Darrel Rhea and his topic was:
Share the Love: What Design & Conscious Color Mean for the Contemporary Global Marketplace
In a market economy characterized by commoditized products and global competition, how do companies gain deep and lasting loyalty from their customers?
The answer is by creating meaningful experiences through a love of design and color.
Darrel is a wonderful speaker and it was fun for all of us to hear about his experiences as a young designer who was himself a member of Color Marketing Group.
He shared how each of us could create meaning for ourselves and our clients. He really walks the talk because he connected his ideas to the audience in a way that was meaningful by being tailored to our group and by suggesting specific actions each of us could take to create value and meaning.
Darrell recommended keeping open to learning and new ideas…
…and develop your own point of view…
This really hit home with me and if you haven’t read his book Making Meaning
Also there is an excellent resources on the Cheskin website that supports what he discussed– An Ethnography Primer
This was especially helpful as I prepared for the design workshop I’m facilitating tomorrow on the influences of ethnography on color and design.
A bit more about Darrel Rhea:
Currently CEO of Cheskin, Darrel has spent the last 25 years working on the front lines of innovation with the world’s top corporations helping them understand their customers, their needs and their experiences — and marrying the best of design, strategy, and market research into a solid business proposition.
Rhea is one of America’s top strategic design consultants, with extensive experience leading industrial design, product development and innovation, graphic design, and brand identity creation initiatives.
13th Oct. '07 • Products & Packaging Color •
Filed as Kate Smith
In the late 1800’s as our countries economy shifted to a consumer economy. America saw the rise of the five and dime store and along with it came store windows and more importantly window shoppers.
For the first time products that had always been kept high on a merchants shelf or behind a counter were put on display for all to see and for the first time products had the opportunity to “speak” directly to customers.
One of the first industries to take advantage of this opportunity was the tobacco industry that was booming in the Ybor City, a part of Tampa, Florida that is also known as “Cigar City”.
Today at the CMG conference I took advantage of the Education Saturday program and it was my pleasure to see a presentation by Emanuel Leto from the Ybor City Museum Society called “The Art of the Cigar Label: More Than Just Pretty Pictures” where he shared the history of the lithographed cigar labels as one of the earliest forms of advertising and also revealed that
“Cigar labels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries are also rich in symbolic imagery. Labels can reflect, in the words of one historian, “the tobacco industry’s important influence on the economic, social, and political climate of Cuba and …Tampa,” and are often “windows to the past,” depicting contemporary events, celebrities, and social life. “
Rather than categorize the cigar labels as most people would, Leto classified them by marketing themes all of which are widely used today for all types of products:
Sex appeal — As Leto puts it “Perhaps nothing grabs a man’s attention like a scantily clad woman, and cigar labels are full of them”.
Celebrity — One of the earliest products to use the power of celebrities to sell. Writers, actors, performers, politicians, generals, explorers, kings, and queens were among the celebrities of the day and all were used to sell cigars.
Romanticism — Many labels offer romanticized images of Native Americans, nature, mythology, or nobility creating a fantasy world designed to appeal to a male consumer.
Patriotism — Theodore Roosevelt, Cuban revolutionary leaders, and American and Cuban soldiers all appeared on cigar labels capitalizing on the nationalism and patriotism surrounding the Spanish American War.
Americana — Many labels were a celebration of American culture and progress and featured trains, ships, maps, famous buildings, and family scenes.
While I have seen old cigar labels on everything from t-shirts to mouse pads I knew nothing of their interesting history or as Leto puts it “these small, colorful snapshots reveal more than just the story of Tampa’s bygone cigar era; they capture an evolving American nation”.
Note: If you are interested in learning more about the process of lithography there is an excellent explanation that is still available online at the National Gallery of Art which they put together in support of an exhibition of works primarily by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
10th Oct. '07 • Color as a Profession • Tags: CMG
Filed as Colorful events
Off to the Color Marketing Group International conference in Tampa, Florida.
I am serving as the Vice-Chair of the conference along with program Chair Leslie Harrington of LH Color and we have an exciting program planned for our fellow CMG members.
Joining us to spread the love of color are two fabulous keynote speakers: Darrel Rhea, CEO of Cheskin and Dorothy Kalins, Founding Editor-in-chief of Metropoliton Home.
If not a member of CMG you might consider joining. I’d love to meet you at our next conference.
So is there a pink princess gene that suddenly blossoms when little girls turn two?
Has the pink and princess blitz revived fantasies of romance under threat from the feminist movement in the 1970s?
Or is the relentless advertising aimed at young girls helping create little princesses?
It’s a combination of those things, say several prominent child psychologists.
“The reason why girls like pink is that their brains are structured completely differently to boys,” says child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg. “Part of the brain that processes emotion and part of the brain that processes language is one and the same in girls but is completely different in boys.
This explains so much - you can give a girl a truck and she’ll cuddle it. You can give a boy a Barbie doll and he’ll rip its head off.
“These differences are hard-wired at birth but you can’t take away the cultural conditioning, which helps it along a bit.”
Read the story at theage.com.au
Among the essays written on sensations and how they equate to symbols, shapes, thoughts and what colors those sensations are poses the question of why the colors we see vary for each of us.
Colors are a general rule most agree that red is red but when it comes to more abstract colors there tends to be disagreement because they are perceived by each individual’s mind a slight bit differently. Synaesthesia, the ability to put symbols to sensations, maybe the key that has uncovered that color, wavelength of light is merely a personal perception by each individual mind.
Green, a color children associate with ‘yucky’ may be the new color for sex offenders in one state. A bill has been proposed to make the worst sex offenders in Wisconsin stand out on the streets and claim the title they have chosen making it visible to the rest of society.
15th Sep. '07 • Color Names • Tags: website colors
Filed as Just posted
Semiologic has a helpful listing for anyone who prefers to use html color names rather than html color hex codes.
See the chart here…
15th Aug. '07 • Books on Color • Tags: Books on Color, color-combinations, color-meaning, color-psychology, color-schemes
Filed as Kate Smith
Make effective, unique and credible color choices
Based on research and filled with hundreds of color combinations and illustrations, Color: Messages & Meanings presents color expert, Leatrice Eiseman’s insights on color and emotion, and addresses how best to integrate these qualities into your work, insuring your intended message is communicated.
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