The Color Revolution
(Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation)
Book (Hardback)
by Regina Lee Blaszczyk
When the fashion industry declares that lime green is the new
black, or instructs us to "think pink!," it is not the result of a
backroom deal forged by a secretive cabal of fashion journalists,
designers, manufacturers, and the editor of "Vogue." It is the latest
development of a color revolution that has been unfolding for more than a
century. In this book, the award-winning historian Regina Lee Blaszczyk
traces the relationship of color and commerce, from haute couture to
automobile showrooms to interior design, describing the often
unrecognized role of the color profession in consumer culture. Blaszczyk
examines the evolution of the color profession from 1850 to 1970,
telling the stories of innovators who managed the color cornucopia that
modern artificial dyes and pigments made possible. These "color
stylists," "color forecasters," and "color engineers" helped
corporations understand the art of illusion and the psychology of color.
Blaszczyk describes the strategic burst of color that took place in the
1920s, when General Motors introduced a bright blue sedan to compete
with Ford's all-black Model T and when housewares became available in a
range of brilliant hues. She explains the process of color
forecasting--not a conspiracy to manipulate hapless consumers but a
careful reading of cultural trends and consumer taste. And she shows how
color information flowed from the fashion houses of Paris to textile
mills in New Jersey. Today professional colorists are part of design
management teams at such global corporations as Hilton, Disney, and
Toyota. "The Color Revolution" tells the history of how colorists help
industry capture the hearts and dollars of consumers.
Commendation Quotes:
"Color is a vivid subject: the ground where moods meet physics.
The colors of a particular moment live on in our memories, yet history
is too often colorblind, oblivious to the powerful role color has played
in the development of our florid consumer culture. "The Color
Revolution" takes a big step toward opening our eyes and minds to the
way in which a varied cast of characters standardized, refined, and
expanded the use of color to create the vibrant, often garish, lives we
live now."--Thomas Hine, author of " Populuxe" and "The Great Funk "
Commendation Quotes:
" "The Color Revolution "unites the visible history of the color
chart with the hidden history of imperfect information, mood, and
perception. The narrative arc of this beautifully illustrated book
starts with the technical achievement of color in describing the timely
development of a reproducible color system among specialists who became
'colorists.' An insightful must-have for the student and historian of
business enterprise, industrial psychology, advertising, and the
predictive modeling of nuance and effect."--William Lawrence Bird, Jr.,
Curator, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Commendation Quotes:
"The twentieth century produced a new tribe of experts: the color
gurus. At the intersection of fashion, psychology, chemistry,
marketing, product design, and even military engineering, these men and
women used the stability and consistency of modern synthetic organic
dyes to create a brave new polychrome world that we now take for
granted--in software and electronic devices, too. Combining formidable
scholarship with memorable personalities and vivid stories, "The Color
Revolution" will fascinate historians, marketing professionals, and
consumers alike."--Edward Tenner, author of "Why Things Bite Back:
Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences" and "Our Own
Devices: How Technology Remakes Humanity"
Commendation Quotes:
"Regina Lee Blaszczyk, who deftly combines ground breaking
scholarship with an engaging style, has produced an important and lively
account of the individuals, organizations, and industries that made
color an inventive and transforming force in modern American culture and
design."--Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior
Curator of Costume and Textiles, Philadelphia Museum of Art
