Livelygrey

Red is usuasally regarded as a color which visually leaps out. Red stand out. Red jumps off the page.
But does it really?
I found two interesting pictures on Flickr. Both contain a red button. The one button is highly visable, the other is almost hidden in its surroundings, even while it takes up a large part of the picture.

How come the one button stands out a lot more than the other? It's not because the button is red. It's because the background is NOT red. From a design perspective, that's a pretty important distinction...

Once again it's not about the colors, it's about how the colors relate to one another.

I recently visited the National Museum in Athens which houses the world's largest collection of ancient Greek works of art. The collection is truly breathtaking. I can wholeheartedly recommend a visit.
There is nevertheless something odd about the museum. A leaflet claims the museum intends to give a good impression of antique art. But nothwithstanding the splendor of the collection, it hardly gives good impression of art in antiquity at all.
There main body of the collection consists of a vast number of marble statues. All the statues in the museum are bare marble of a grey-yellowish hue. However, in antiquity the statues (and buildings, for that matter) were painted in bright colors (gaudy colors as some modern scholars keep insisting). So bare marble hardly gives a good impression at all. Being a color geek I paid attention, but in the whole museum there was hardly a mention of color or paint to be found. When I did finally spot a small indication, I photographed it. The small sign next to the statue is about all the museum has to say on the subject of color. It sure leaves me with the impression that color on antique statues are still taboo.
I would love to see larger pictures of virtually painted statues next to each and every original. It shouldn't be much of a problem with a bit of modern technology combined with an old-fashioned sense of color.

I bought myself a new car today. I couldn't resist when I set my eyes on it. The model is kind of vintage Mercedes, beautifully curved with a shiny radiator grille and golden bumpers. It even has hand crafted rims. Tell me, who could posibly resist a car like that?

Obviously, I was most impressed with its colors and delicate textures. The car has been crafted out of empty tin cans. If you look inside the car (it even has tiny chairs and a steering wheel) you can still see the brownish paint that used to be contained in the can.

Seeing the car, I see a kid somewhere in Africa or Asia putting it together out of a pile of junk. But most importantly, I see the kid passionately fussing over which piece of tin to choose for the roof, for the doors and the engine hood. That kid has realy put some effort into it. There's no piece to be found that hasn't been carefully hand picked and modelled for a designated place in the car.

As a result the car had some qualities that are lacking in industrial products: it has soul. Just look at that red roof and the red hood. The hood even has a yellow striping exactly where it meets the windshield.
Who wouldn't fall in love with such a piece of art?

Click here for a highres image.

Wired.com came up with a red photo contest the other day. Readers could submit their best red picture and vote on others.

See: wired.com

The top 10 pictures are quite nice. When browsing through the entries it struck me how many faces the color red actually has. Red is often associated with agression and arousement. But some of these pictures are tranquil rather than dynamic. These pictures illustrate nicely that colors are not easily caught into cliches.

Hi all,
Sorry for not blogging. I've been terribly busy. And had to transfer all my files to not only a new computer, but a whole different OS as well. I've moved back from Windows to Mac. It sure is a relief, but it also takes a lot of re-adjusting...

Stay tuned for some new posts....