Crayoned Culture
The “Colour Elite” and the Commercial Nature of Colour Standardization
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8895968 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Charlene Elliott (0000-0003-2615-2144, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 37-62 |
| Publication date | 2003-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Canadian Review of American Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-7720 • E-ISSN: 1710-114X |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/cras-s033-01-03 |
| OpenAlex | W2072471531 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 1 |
We have played no small part in the awakening of this country to a great color consciousness. Today our color, like our music, is an expression of the age we are living in. Through color, hue and form, America is expressing her culture, her sense of the beautiful ... Annual Report of the TCCA (Textile Color Card Association), 1929 (CAUS Archive)Although colour saturates culture, one rarely considers how colour is controlled. Colour standardization – the attempt to hem in hue – is central to the functioning of our material culture. “Signature” colours like John Deere green, IBM blue, and Barbie pink rely on consistency and conformity to establish brand identity, which is precisely why the Starbucks green logo looks the same whether you’re sipping lattes in Vancouver, Manhattan, or Beijing, and why Pepsi’s blue only lightened up after extensive market research. 1 Yet several questions pertaining to colour standardization arise. If colour is central to the functioning of our material culture, then who determines and regulates the hues? Is this a legitimate case of colour codification and if so, how is it accomplished? Further, what does the industry approach to standardizing colour reveal about the wider socio-cultural environment in which it operates? This article seeks to unsettle the presumption that colour splashes freely throughout our commercial culture by unveiling the industry behind standardized colour and scrutinizing the “Colour Elite” who controls it. A probatory piece on the practical expression of colour codification, this article does not strive to illuminate or critique a particular theoretical paradigm; rather it foregrounds colour codification to prompt a rethinking of communication and, more critically, the colour communication swirling within it
Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Business · Clothing · Conformity · Consistency (knowledge bases · Elite · Expression (computer science · Hue · Political science · Presumption · Sociology · Standardization · Artificial Intelligence · Color perception and design · Computer Science · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Law
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,05 |
| Citation span | 2007 - 2007 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |