“If we were to imagine an orange on the blue side or violet on the yellow side, it would give us the same impression as a north wind coming from southwest.”
-Ludwig Wittgenstein
Naming colors is a dream job; Mountain Desert Blue, Topanga Cloud Orange, Lavender Merengue Dreamsicle. The whimsical captions activate my imagination. I still can’t wait for Pantone’s announcement for “Color of the Year” or for the chance to peruse down the paint chip aisle at Home Depot for a home project. Colors surround our world and while I’ll admit that reading names like Nairobi Dusk are intriguing, it does leave a range of ambiguity. In this aspect, I understand the need to create a structure for color tones within a digital design system.
“The most successful color nomenclature sticks to common language. When names of colors are wacky, reference cultural trends, or are over-branded, it becomes difficult to understand how colors work together as a system.”
-Jess Sattell, Naming Colors in Design Systems
While reading the article, Naming Colors in Design Systems, many points were made by the writer for creating a numeric classification to base color systems. For example, keeping the color name but adding a number value is a complementary pairing. Using blue (not oceanic or phthalo blue) and numbers to scale the brightness or darkness value (50-900) creates room for more color subtleties and predictability within a system (ex. blue-55, blue-100). Reserving special color names for specific palettes or branding assets are also likely to be more effective. The writer makes a point to be strategic with descriptive color words and to not get too cutesy or metaphorical since the goal is designing comprehensible and accessible interfaces. Although I still favor more interpretive color names, I am starting to understand the difference between where that is desired verses where more clarity and structure is needed. Training my mind to be more methodical about color systems is one way I’m shifting my process from artist to UX designer.
“Again, design systems are about utility and scalability. Using a method like a numeric scale to communicate meaning will give you a lot of flexibility as you grow and inevitably change your color system again and again..”
-Jess Sattell, Naming Colors in Design Systems
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