“The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.”

A powerful technique in combating color palette option paralysis is to explore and define a story about a color’s history. To introduce this approach, we’ll work backwards by uncovering a story about a hue you may be unfamiliar with.

To begin, you’ll be researching the color you’ve selected. As you discover the details, tease out the story it has to tell. For example, as your research progresses you may learn about the people who harvested the raw materials, or the desire for your color at a particular time, perhaps the process of creating the color, the technology and politics that drove demand, or even who (or what) died in its making. Follow any (and every) curiosity your research brings to light and unearth the hidden story.

To share your research you’ll create a video. This can be stop motion or live animation, you can do it with your phone, in Photoshop, or imovie, or maybe you’ll use this as an opportunity to work in After Effects, Premier or some other fancy software. The only requirements are that you tell your color’s story and there should be sound! Music, musical effects, you talking, the computer talking, anyone talking.

Show it to your friends / family to see if the story comes across as you intend it. Edit as necessary. Revise. Make it awesome.

As your research evolves, consider the information below to include in your narrative.

• • what is the primary ingredient — animal, vegetable, mineral... something else?
  • how is your color made?
  • how did it get its name / what does it mean?
  • where was it used?
  • how was it used — is it a pigment or a dye?
  • is it still popular today — if not, why? if so, where?
  • find a coated pantone color match but do not use pms colors with a TPX prefix (those are for textile printing only, not graphic designers).
  • include any other fun (or not so fun) facts you discover in your research

 
At some point in your video flood the screen with your color and show the cmyk, rgb, and pantone matches that best represent your understanding of your color.