Like so many inventions, Pantone design system was born of frustration. Sick clients who complain that the colors are presented in their jobs different from those agreed, Herbert Lawrence, an employee in the early 1960s in Pantone, printing company of America, who decided to create a universal system of color matching for designers, printers and customers. In the next few years he elegantly decks of cards featuring a colored rectangle, the code has become ubiquitous in studios around the world.
More recently the brand has made a play for Pantone consumer market. A wide range of products, featuring a series of distinctive colors, even includes a series of Mugs in various shades of Brown, a delightful tea drinkers seek wheeze to perfect drinks. How disappointing was that the latest offer, a book charting the evolution of color during the 20th century, somewhat dry tone with an ugly, layout.
There are, however, the ideas and images to cherish in this decade by decade through gallop 100 years of fashion (primarily United States), interior, toys, art, advertising and product-from the Rose O'Neill Kewpie baby giggles from the early 1900s, to survive the 1930s Bakelite used in United States professional billiards pool hall, or candy-colors, anime Japan.
There is also an interesting visual examples of how tastefully developed in conjunction with social change: the image of women in Pale, Edwardian ensemble muffled make way for the 1920s flappers sports red and bright lipstick pink and apricot tones-heralded, we are told, by the "American women are granted the right to vote … and set up so that by the 18th amendment to the prohibition of alcohol". While Kate Middleton clothes pig news today, the book shows the Lady Diana in brown corduroy, wellies are green and Red regal, embodies the Sloane Ranger spotted the early 1980s.
But the focus of extensive book stumbling block. Limited page 190, authors can only offer a school textbook overview level every time and generalizations are often inconclusive. Why not make a book for each category? Or one for each decade? I was left with more questions than answers with a glimpse into the world of art transform the relationship with color, about how Edward Hopper used "rich, promising to represent the color of silence and isolation" or why Cubists rejected decorative colour Fauves.