The Ink Spot

4:29 PM

In my experience, clients who don't have a clue about design, but still wants to micro manage, often tries to take control with the color scheme. Everybody knows which colors they like. 9 out of 10 times they will suggest one of the following:
1. Orange
2. Teal
3. A different color for each chapter/theme
NEVER brown, which they hate!
Is this specific for my country (Denmark) or does anybody else have the same experience?

more or less

although I don't hear orange suggested often

but yeah people hate brown

brown is extremely underrated

@Vincent Chocolate, earth, wood, dark skin, fur are all nice things.

@Vincent You're lucky! I hear it all the time. And CMYK orange is just a bit flat in my opinion. I believe it's because a lot of the other colors have so many connotations. It's 7th grade text analysis kicking in. :-)

4:51 PM

@Wolff I have a client who hates green and another client who wants everything green, he's addicted to golf. Both sell the same type of product. I used chocolate brown in one design and there wasn't any object. But it's something cultural. In Spain there's a current problem with yellow for politic reasons. Yellow is my favourite color :-/

object = objection

@Vincent (just realized that you are from the Netherlands which must have a special relation to the color orange)

@Danielillo Hehe. Of course colors have different meaning which comes from their role in nature, but the more I work with colors the more I tend to see them as equals. It's all about the balance in the design, not so much the specific hue.

@Wolff that's why I like the more yellow oranges better, they come out way bette rin CMYK

And yes, we do associate orange with our royal house and, mianly, soccer

@Danielillo political? I thought it was the association with misforture, from theatre, that was strong in your country? Funny, good to know

What party is yellow in Spain?

@Wolff I do very much agree

@Vincent I think he refers to Catalonian separatists. Right @Danielillo?

oh, if that's the case I can imagine it's a touchy colour

@Vincent Found this.

5:06 PM

check

My company has a lot of left-wing clients, so you can imagine that red is often used. Blue can be harder to use because people associate it with business and right-wing.

ah but those associations are reversed in the States

there the Republicans are red, and the Democats are blue

I know, but I can't quite understand. Soviet Union and China are red.

as is North Korea

at least partially

@Vincent The Democats sounds cute. Very political felines. :-)

5:10 PM

Yes, this is the problem. I have to be careful about yellow now, currently it is a very susceptible color in terms of meanings

but blue, especially navy, is also the colour of conservatism, as it is used a lot by bankers and other financials, lawpeople et cetera

that's because it was originally the colour of reliability

@Danielillo I can imagine

It's fun to see how politics change the view on colors. The social democrats in Denmark used to be as red as communist red. Then they started to move right and a little blue was added to the color, making it beetroot colored. Now they want to show that they are also funky fresh so they have chosen a more tomato red with a hint of yellow which the call "competition orange".

(or the designers does - to much amusement in the population)

@Danielillo So my avatar is a bit hard on the eyes for Spanish people?

@Wolff 😂😃 yes, you are a separatist-nationalist or at list you are agree with them

but it's more egg yellow, your it's to lemon I guess

@Danielillo Sunflowers and chicken are not selling as they used to...

@Wolff even mcdonalds!!!

5:23 PM

Hehe. Have you seen the "Cheetos changed from orange to green to avoid association with Trump's skin color"-joke? Link

It seems graphic design is always at least a little political.

It's just that politics needs to get its grubby fingers in all of society, all the time :P

@Vincent I am interested in politics, but life and art is much bigger than the eternal tribal war of political fractions. I refuse to let it dictate which colors to choose for a design.

5:50 PM

@Wolff until general public opinion has gotten so strong it is no longer possible to see the colour separate from the movement that has claimed it as their own

we're skirting thir room's ban on politics, by the way. Just so you know ;)

Are we? I'm not advocating for any specific political views. I'm trying to hide my own opinion. I think it's part of the job to understand what is going on in society.

It's been a good talk i think. But now I'm going to eat my dinner. See you later.