Blog

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat… I love color and I’m kind of a color nerd. I like finding great colors in nature, but I also love color crammed into paint tubes, pencils, watercolor pans, crayons and cans of Krylon. I love pulling off those tiny paper Pantone chips. And I confess that I sometimes take the paper paint color samples from Home Depot to use as bookmarks. So yes, I have a problem, but I’m guessing that I’m not alone.

Every themed entertainment design project has a moment when color or a whole bunch of colors becomes a primary subject of study. Sometimes an intellectual property comes with their own colors outlined in style guides. Other times, we start with a blank page. Honestly, I love the challenge of choosing color palettes — whether we’re talking LED lights or industrial paints. If you’re like me and you love color, or if you’re even curious about what I’m rambling on about, I’m happy to recommend my favorite books on color.

My favorite book on the subject is Kassia St. Clair’s The Secret Lives of Color. This recent, beautiful book tells the origin story of dozens of colors, where they come from, how they get made into fabric or paint or candy, and how often they get lost again. Why isn’t the flag of the Netherlands orange? Was beige ever fashionable? Which navy painted their ships pink? Many questions, lots of answers.

Honorable mention goes to Victoria Finlay’s Colour, which takes a deep dive into detail about how humans have gathered and reproduced colors over the centuries. 

For years I have kept my own color library of favorite colors, which mostly includes swatches of colors from watercolor palettes and random colored pencils.

— Ryan Miziker