Need Help with Colors

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Evolute

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Mar 19, 2001
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I'm illustrating and co-writing a book. In the book, I want to make reference to colors which will be universally understood by readers. I want to refer to the colors of items, where those items are known by people in locations around the world, and where the colors of those items are very consistent.

I'm having trouble coming up with such examples. I'd like to use cases from nature, but almost all the cases in nature that I can think of have too much variability. I have an idea that perhaps the way to go is colors of international products and international corporation logos, such as the red color of Coca Cola cans. But I'm still having trouble coming up with much.

If you can come up with any examples of objects and colors that will be well known around the world, and are always consistent in color, please list them here. The more the better.

Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.
 
People who deal in jade have developed a very precise vocabulary to describe a large number of colors (supposed to be several thousand different colors, though I don't know that many). You might poke around the web a little....
 
Cougar, thank you.

I actually considered jade, as well as sapphire, emerald, and other gemstones; but, as you say, there are thousands of colors of jade, and jade dealers have developed their own very precise vocabulary to describe them. Now if jade was always the exact same color, and everyone knew that one color by name without having to look it up, it would be perfect.

What I'm referring to is more like "UPS Brown" or "USPS Mailbox Blue", where the color is always tightly controlled for consistency, and people know the color well just from saying it (except that I don't think those examples would be known internationally).
 
Color designations are often culture specific. In some situations, scientists even have trouble pinning down agreements on colors. Pick up a Munsell chart sometime and have a look at what soil scientists or geologists have to deal with.

The only "constants" would involve physical (mathematically defined) properties. However, I do like your step toward advertising colors, which strive for a certain optical consistency.
 
Kodak Logo Yellow? McDonald's Arches Yellow? Land Rover Logo Green? Do they use the same color logos around the world? Are they well known around the world?
 
I don't think I've made myself clear.... People who are into jade have already faced that problem and found a solution that works for them. Jade doesn't just come in green, it comes in every color imaginable, and there are names for them all. The names originated in China but people all over the world understand them. Why reinvent the wheel? It is likely to be helpful to look into their solution, anyway.
 
Cougar,

Thank you.

I think I understood you, both the first and the second time.

I think I was the one who was unclear.

I am looking for cases that are widely familiar, not obscure cases. That is the whole point of my question. It is not enough that people anywhere can find out consistent colors with some effort; it has to be cases where most average readers will intuitively know just what color I'm talking about simply by reading it (such as "Blood Red", to name one of the few examples I can think of which kind of works). It has to be examples that are easy for the average reader. If I was open to obscure cases where someone anywhere in the world could find out a precise color by going through some involved effort to see known reference colors, then this would be easy: I could then just tell people to go look at a Gretag Macbeth Colorchecker, or tell people to go look at a Pantone Color Chart, or tell people to carefully calibrate their monitors with photospectrometers and then open up Photoshop and create a file set to my specified RGB values.

Jade fits into the same kind of category, where a reader anywhere can find out precise colors through their obscure names if they put down the book and go make a big effort. These are exactly the kind of solutions I am trying to avoid.

If this can't be done, and I'm beginning suspect it can't, then I'd do better to not include any such part in the book, rather than tell readers to go see "Chui" jade for reference.
 
As you are also the illustrator, could you illustrate the colors you will be using in the book, on a page in the front? something the readers could possibly relate to:

A visual reference, for example:

red: rose, fire engine

yellow: sunflower, lemon, sun, banana

blue: ocean, river, lake, sky

orange: orange, poppy

brown: earth, tree trunk, brown dog

green: leaf, grass, bush


just a suggestion.....



TJ
 
Hi, Judy,

Thank you.

Of course, I could easily illustrate such things, but there's no way I control the color accuracy nor consistency of book printings, nor the color accuracy of different people's computer monitors.
 
Guyon said:
Color designations are often culture specific. In some situations, scientists even have trouble pinning down agreements on colors.
Click to expand...
+ 1

Even synesthetes and clairvoyants disagree on the "meaning" of a specific color.

Unlikely you'll be able to find any truly universal designation for specific colours or shades, but you could start by looking at warning signs and traffic signals.

Colors in patterns seem to have deep meanings sometimes. For example, yellow and black alternating stripes signal "stinging insect" to a variety of animals, so non-venomous flies have (hypothetically) evolved that coloration to discourage predation . . . and today we use that same pattern on a variety of "warning" signage. Red & white are used on "stop", "do not enter", and "danger" signs.
 
You're up against another problem when you try to find internationally recognizable colors, when different cultures don't even break up the color spectrum the same way.

For example, some cultures use one word for what we call green and blue. Of course, they see the same differences we do, but just as we see light blue and dark blue and blue-gray but call them blue, they think of blue&green as one color with variations within it. Similarly, brown&red&orange can be one color, so trying to assign a meaning to brown different from orange would be futile for them.
 
K.I.S.S.


yellow: lemon
blue: sky (daytime)
red: blood
green: grass
brown: mud
orange: orange (fruit)

there are obviously variations of each, but the vast majority of people will identify with the simplest items, and the more general you are, the more universal the references.
 
Appeal to the emotional,

Cool blue

Red rage,

Green envy,

or,,,

Roadkill red,

mudspray brown.

Electric blue
 
If you will be putting them in a book, why not just use the Pantone Matching System (PMS)? That's the standard that the printing industry uses.
 
"As red as FF0000"; "As gray as 808080"; "As turquoise as 00FFFF".

Really, you're just best off describing the color as plainly. There are different shades of navy blue, but most people get the idea. Wine red, sage, peach, etc.
 
Thanks, Everybody.

Esav,

I don't expect that would be a problem. I don't need my readers to agree with me whether a color is blue or green, nor distinguish whether the color they are looking at is brown, red, or orange.

Mark and Tim,

Thanks, but those won't work at all. There's far too much variation in each of those suggestions.

mycrofft and Chris,

Thanks. Please read post #7, regarding Pantone and similar solutions.
 
OK - then there's only one place to go: the superdeluxe crayola crayon collection. Everybody will know bubblegum pink and mac & chese orange!
 
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