What's in a name?
This is my photograph of some paint samples printed on strips of card by a major paint company. I picked these up for free at my local Homebase. I'm afraid the colours aren't represented that faithfully, but that shouldn't affect this writing exercise.
Here are some ideas for using them as a thinking and writing stimulus.
These paint colours are given names, as well as numbers. In this case they are also labeled in one of the categories - calm, rich, fresh, warm. (It would be a rare paint company that dreamt up categories of stressy, skint, stale and parky. Although in one way, it would make no less sense, I guess sales might be poor. Associations matter.)
These names are partly for ease of identification, but also to aid sales by associating colours with exotic places, pleasant moods, or desirable objects. Our garage door is basically yellow, but the name of the colour on the tin was 'Tibetan gold'. The paint is now flaking and I've long forgotten the number, but I can still remember the name. So I suppose the association has worked. I get a pleasant glow. It's not that I think of the Dalai Lama smiling outside some ornate Buddhist temple. But Chinese troops at dawn? Himalayan jaundice? Not so much.
Here's the idea. What would you name these colours? What associations - pleasant or unpleasant - do they have for you? This could be done singly or in pairs. In a large group, sharing afterwards would provoke plenty of discussion. In a recent exercise a group generated 'Mendelssohn green, Baguette and onion, Orchard owl and Faint Michelle'. (You had to be there.)
This is my photograph of some paint samples printed on strips of card by a major paint company. I picked these up for free at my local Homebase. I'm afraid the colours aren't represented that faithfully, but that shouldn't affect this writing exercise.
Here are some ideas for using them as a thinking and writing stimulus.
These paint colours are given names, as well as numbers. In this case they are also labeled in one of the categories - calm, rich, fresh, warm. (It would be a rare paint company that dreamt up categories of stressy, skint, stale and parky. Although in one way, it would make no less sense, I guess sales might be poor. Associations matter.)
These names are partly for ease of identification, but also to aid sales by associating colours with exotic places, pleasant moods, or desirable objects. Our garage door is basically yellow, but the name of the colour on the tin was 'Tibetan gold'. The paint is now flaking and I've long forgotten the number, but I can still remember the name. So I suppose the association has worked. I get a pleasant glow. It's not that I think of the Dalai Lama smiling outside some ornate Buddhist temple. But Chinese troops at dawn? Himalayan jaundice? Not so much.
Here's the idea. What would you name these colours? What associations - pleasant or unpleasant - do they have for you? This could be done singly or in pairs. In a large group, sharing afterwards would provoke plenty of discussion. In a recent exercise a group generated 'Mendelssohn green, Baguette and onion, Orchard owl and Faint Michelle'. (You had to be there.)
Click on the right when you want to know what Dulux named these four colours.
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