The Color Revolution Contributor(s): Blaszczyk, Regina Lee (Author) |
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ISBN: 0262017776 ISBN-13: 9780262017770 Publisher: MIT Press OUR PRICE: $39.60 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: August 2012 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Business & Economics | Marketing - General - Art | Color Theory - Technology & Engineering | History |
Dewey: 658.823 |
LCCN: 2011052295 |
Series: Lemelson Center Studies in Invention and Innovation |
Physical Information: 1.1" H x 8.4" W x 10.2" (3.20 lbs) 400 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: A history of color and commerce from haute couture to automobile showrooms to interior design. When the fashion industry declares that lime green is the new black, or instructs us to "think pink ," it is not the result of a backroom deal forged by a secretive cabal of fashion journalists, designers, manufacturers, and the editor of Vogue. It is the latest development of a color revolution that has been unfolding for more than a century. In this book, the award-winning historian Regina Lee Blaszczyk traces the relationship of color and commerce, from haute couture to automobile showrooms to interior design, describing the often unrecognized role of the color profession in consumer culture. Blaszczyk examines the evolution of the color profession from 1850 to 1970, telling the stories of innovators who managed the color cornucopia that modern artificial dyes and pigments made possible. These "color stylists," "color forecasters," and "color engineers" helped corporations understand the art of illusion and the psychology of color. Blaszczyk describes the strategic burst of color that took place in the 1920s, when General Motors introduced a bright blue sedan to compete with Ford's all-black Model T and when housewares became available in a range of brilliant hues. She explains the process of color forecasting--not a conspiracy to manipulate hapless consumers but a careful reading of cultural trends and consumer taste. And she shows how color information flowed from the fashion houses of Paris to textile mills in New Jersey. Today professional colorists are part of design management teams at such global corporations as Hilton, Disney, and Toyota. The Color Revolution tells the history of how colorists help industry capture the hearts and dollars of consumers. |
Contributor Bio(s): Blaszczyk, Regina Lee: - Regina Lee Blaszczyk is Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society at the University of Leeds and an associate editor at the Journal of Design History. Her books include Imagining Consumers: Design and Innovation from Wedgwood to Corning, Producing Fashion: Commerce, Culture and Consumers, and American Consumer Society, 1865-2005: From Hearth to HDTV.Molella, Arthur P.: - Arthur P. Molella is Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Director of the Smithsonian Institution's Lemelson Center. He is the co-editor (with Joyce Bedi) of Inventing for the Environment (2003, MIT Press).Bedi, Joyce: - Joyce Bedi is Senior Historian at the Smithsonian Institution's Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. |