The Color Revolution (Lemelson Center Studies in Invention - download pdf or read online

When the style broadcasts that lime eco-friendly is the recent black, or instructs us to "think pink!," it's not the results of a backroom deal cast through a secretive cabal of style newshounds, designers, brands, and the editor of Vogue. it's the most modern improvement of a colour revolution that has been unfolding for greater than a century. during this e-book, the award-winning historian Regina Lee Blaszczyk lines the connection of colour and trade, from high fashion to vehicle showrooms to inside layout, describing the customarily unrecognized function of the colour occupation in patron tradition. Blaszczyk examines the evolution of the colour occupation from 1850 to 1970, telling the tales of innovators who controlled the colour cornucopia that sleek man made dyes and pigments made attainable. those "color stylists," "color forecasters," and "color engineers" helped firms comprehend the paintings of phantasm and the psychology of colour. Blaszczyk describes the strategic burst of colour that came about within the Nineteen Twenties, whilst common automobiles brought a vivid blue sedan to compete with Ford's all-black version T and whilst housewares grew to become to be had in a number outstanding colorings. She explains the method of colour forecasting -- now not a conspiracy to control hapless shoppers yet a cautious examining of cultural developments and customer style. and she or he indicates how colour details flowed from the style homes of Paris to fabric generators in New Jersey. this day expert colorists are a part of layout administration groups at such international enterprises as Hilton, Disney, and Toyota. The colour Revolution tells the background of the way colorists support seize the hearts and funds of consumers.