Color Consulting - Up to my eyeballs in color!

I started my career as a color consultant in graphic design.  It was the early 1990's and a giant box arrived for me at work.  Lo-and-behold, it was a brand spankin' new Tektronix full color printer!  One of the very first color printers made.  It was the size of a small-capacity washing machine.  I kid you not.

The following weeks and months were brutal.  I was responsible for the design of many different media, but my main job was to design yellow pages ads.  Anyone who understands color management will totally get this next part and why that intial period was so brutal.  I designed full color ads on a computer monitor, printed them out on white paper for proof, and when sold those ads would publish on yellow paper. In an effort to spare you the details, let's just say what we know about color management today did not exist back-in-the-day and leave it at that.

I do not have a warm and fuzzy story about how I got into the color biz: no fascination with the über box of Crayola crayons to report, no rearranging of furniture from toddler hood, no fond memories of running home from school to my finger-paints. Nope, nothing like that. I was thrown headfirst into the reality that color is complex, tangible commerce, and 80% of how we communicate. There was nothing cute, Crayola, or childlike about it.  Does that sound bitter?  Nah, not me. I'm actually quite grateful for the experience and opportunity to learn as much as I did.  The resources made available to me at that time were phenomenal.

The introduction I got to the serious business of color came with deadlines and repercussions if I didn't get color right.  In order to get color right, I had to live and breathe color theory and understand the physio and psychological impact that color has on human beings.  I learned to pay attention and listen to how people interacted with and related to color.  It wasn't about me and how clever and talented I was with color.  It was about the client and the users of what we produced and their relationships with color.

My perspective on color is unusual because of that experience and I would not change a thing. My experiences with color are like no one else's.  I stand out in the world of color because I have a command of additive AND subtractive color.  It is rare that a color consultant or designer has a thorough understanding of just one of those color models let alone experience with both.

I am a color consultant because of the unique expertise I possess. What I learned in those first few brutal weeks was just the beginning and it became clear early on that if you do not have a command of additive color, it is impossible to have a command of subtractive color.  Period.

Stay with me as I Squidoodle and I'll explain what additive and subtractive color is and why both are so important.  I will also share some cool stuff  about color in a manner that will enable you to apply what you learn to the way you color your world.

Later, Lori

www.colorstrategies.net