Colour in branding

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Colour across print, screen, fabric and packaging

Lesson 8 of 11 in Colour in branding.

CMYK vs. RGB vs. Pantone: Surface Design Color Systems Explained! · Skillshare
Lesson

One brand colour is really a family of near-matches, one per medium, and pretending otherwise is how a brand ends up with a blue that is visibly different on its website, its packaging and its staff shirts.

one colourPANTONE 2347 Ccoated stockC0 M89 Y88 K0four colour printR227 G30 B36screen#E31E24web, and only weba hex alonecannot beprinted
One colour specified four ways, because four processes need four numbers.
An ink drawing of a designer holding swatches against a blue shirt, surrounded by a laptop, a printed box, a plastic cup and a tin lid, all in slightly different blues.
A designer checks one brand blue against a screen, a printed box, a staff shirt and a plastic cup. Each is a slightly different blue, matched one material at a time.
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  1. Question 1, locked

    A dyed fabric sample matches the printed swatch perfectly in the studio, then looks clearly different in the shop. What happened?

    • Metamerism: the two surfaces reflect different parts of the spectrum, so they agree under one light only
    • The dye faded in transit, which is what a textile reference exists to prevent
    • The fabric was specified in CMYK rather than Pantone TCX, so it was converted twice
    • Ink soaked into the printed swatch and dulled it as it dried
  2. Question 2, locked

    Which of these words means this? “The range a medium can reproduce. Each one is a different shape.”

    • Coverage
    • Non-text contrast
    • Colour space
    • Tonal ramp
  3. Question 3, locked

    Which of these words means this? “Two samples matching under one light and not under another.”

    • Pantone TCX
    • Acquired distinctiveness
    • Metamerism
    • Ratio

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