We have all had those discussions. Your shirt is blue and she thinks your tie clashes. You argue that it has blue in it – she says that isn’t blue, it’s green. I can’t settle all your relationship issues. For those you are on your own, but I would like to make some suggestions when it comes to talking about colour.
First, a test. I know, very unfair, because I didn’t give you time to study. Can you accurately name these colours?
Fortunately, for the sake of my illustration, your monitor, operating system and lighting conditions will make this particularly difficult. I also happened to choose colours are are in between others on the colour scale.
For some, no. 1 will be grey. Some will see green. Number 2 could be purple or blue. Some will look great on your wall, others will clash with your logo, while the others will either be soothing or sickening.
What makes colour description even more complicated is how we name colours. What colour is grape? At what angle are you looking up when you see sky blue? And is ocean blue Pacific, Atlantic or Indian?
There are a few ways around this issue. One is to ask your designer (hi!) to submit a reference colour chart. Your logo or stationery has probably been designed with a colour palette which your designer has used between various applications to maintain colour consistency. With a copy of this chart, you can both see exactly which grey/blue you might be referring to.
Another way is to download a Pantone chart and refer to colours by their code. Pantone colours are extremely accurate and essential for print colours.
You can also refer to colours by their RGB (red green blue, or on-screen) values, or CMYK (Cyan, magenta, yellow and black, or print) values. For the colours the RGB values would be 1. #E0E6D8, 2. #7523E7, 3. #076297, 4. #E32471 and 5. #E6D24B. Yes, now you know. CMYK colours are expressed as percentages. # 1 would be 12% 4% 15% 0%, or C=12, M=4, M=15, K=0. I’m sure you don’t want me to list off the other codes, so we’ll leave it at that.
When it comes to describing colours, using terms that suggest the combinations you see is also helpful. For example, blue/green is more helpful than ‘mid ocean greenish’.
I hope this helps you communicate with your designer exactly what colour you are seeing on your monitor or in your head.
