50 shades of blue

As a little boy, Sebastiaan de Ruiter, co-owner of Comrads, was once allowed to accompany his father to work. There he watched with interest as his father, with a magnifying glass and a color chart in hand, made sure that colors such as KLM blue and Amstel red always rolled off the press consistently. Although analog control has made way for digital control almost everywhere, consistent use of color is still important, Sebastiaan knows better than anyone.

Taking daddy to the office

I remember it like yesterday. I was a little guy, and I got to go to the office with my dad for a day. Today, many a child sits next to Dad at the kitchen table and that work doesn't seem so special at all, but back then it was really special. My father was a production man at what was once one of the largest advertising agencies: the illustrious PMSvW/Y&R. There he was responsible for the quality of the print work of key accounts, including such well-known names as KLM, Mazda and Amstel Beer. Among other things, he did color control at one of the major premedia companies, Van Ginneken en Mostaard. There he stood, at the light box with his magnifying glass in one hand and a color chart in the other, assessing whether the KLM blue was the right shade of blue and whether the lithographs going to the printer were really of the right quality. I thought that was a lot impressive!

From analog to digital process

Of course, this analog process has gradually given way to a digital one. The men and women standing at the light box checking colors are hardly to be found anymore. All corporate colors have been translated from CMYK and PMS values - specifically for printing - to RGB and HEX codes for the digital world. Because even in the digital world, organizations still place a great deal of value on the correct use of color. Yet that is very difficult to maintain in a digital world. For example, the real KLM blue has been translated into the hexadecimal format 00A1DE. But no one has control over how a potential traveler ends up viewing KLM channels. Ensuring that a color is displayed as intended requires a calibrated monitor, and few walk around with one. An HP display will show a color differently than a Samsung screen, even two exactly the same monitors can already show a color differently. And if you look at a color on, say, a phone with a blue filter, the color looks different again. Not to mention what the human brain can do with a color. In short, what you send out into the world as KLM blue, ends up in the average living room as 50 shades of blue.

Print still relevant

Reason to just let go of your standards? Definitely not! We are convinced that if you take your brand seriously - and who doesn't - it is still very important to make sure your colors are used consistently across all channels. Colors are not only important for recognizing your company, but also play a role in how people perceive your identity and trustworthiness. If your source material is already of the wrong shade of blue - or pink, or orange - then you can't expect a good shade of blue to end up with the user at all. And as digital as our world is today, print is also still relevant. The world is still full of posters, billboards and mupis. And don't forget flyers, manuals, business cards, menus, stationery and banners. In all these expressions, the consistency of color still plays an important role in brand perception.

The green - uh, yellow - jersey

If there is one industry that knows how important the correct use of color is, it is the fashion industry. After all, how annoying is it if you shop at Zalando for a nice new green sweater that turns out to be yellow when you unpack it? Guaranteed, that sweater goes right back in the box and back to sender.

Craftsman's job

Yes, craftsmanship has shifted. As a boy, I would stand and marvel at those grown men standing at the light box with magnifying glasses and color charts. Those days are no more. But to get a color cross-media yet consistent into the world is still a craftsman's chore. No, you don't control how on the other side of a screen a user experiences the color. But if you can establish the basic corporate colors properly and link clear guidelines to them, there is a much greater chance that your reliable Heineken green, Vodafone red, UPS brown, Coca-Cola red, McDonalds yellow and ING orange will reach the end user as intended. And that the green jersey ends up in the closet, instead of being returned to sender.

Curious?

Want to talk further about how our complete Digital Brand & Asset Management solutions can support your organization to efficiently manage, communicate and share all your brand elements, logos, fonts, colors and guidelines? Feel free to contact us or request a free demo right away. We like to think along with you. Now and in the future.