Chromophobia

When color was cool - Picture courtesy of Chrysler Corp.

by blogSpotter
I have pleasant memories of visiting my Thedford grandparents in Waco, Texas. As a little boy, I had no idea that Waco was “unhip”. All I knew is that I loved the Lion’s Club Pool, the Lake Air Mall, Piccadilly Cafeteria and the Methodist Church picnics that served home-made peach ice cream. Most of all I loved my grandparents and their easy-going lifestyle. They were kind and indulgent; on visits they would glut us with home cooking and watch all of our silly TV shows with us (Man from UNCLE, Mayberry RFD).

I also loved their huge, colorful 1955 ranch style house. The hall bath had robin’s egg blue tile. The master bath was fitted in pink tile (matching toilet and sink of course). The guest bath had a seafoam green tile. I loved all the color play and it added to the enjoyment of all bathroom visits. My Grandma once said, “Sometimes the world is a dreary place – I like bright colors to liven it up”. I love her outlook, and Grandma’s house had lots of fun color sense, with orange, red, blue and green coming at you from various places. She wore bright colors and her cars were always pretty colors (mauve, avocado green).

Now, let us flash forward to 2011. Grandma Thedford would need rose colored glasses to greet our jaded, sophisticated world where bright color is often seen as juvenile, naïve, immature or gauche. According to a DuPont survey, the most popular car colors are actually non-colors: white, black, silver and gray. 71% of cars manufactured are those colors. Since the early 90’s, home décor has been in the same cycle of enforced drabness: gray granite kitchens and baths, silver appliances, hemp-colored carpet, off-white walls and brown tile floors. Of course, the home owner can add color with artwork and pillows but the builders’ color-phobia is all too pronounced.

Even clothing, which should be an extension of the unlimited self, has fallen under the pall of muted monotony. That “brown is the new black” should never be a necessary statement… Why is black, the color of funerary sadness, the ultimate color to emulate? Clothing follows much the same rules as house and car colors (particularly for men). Some primary and secondary colors can creep in if they’re sufficiently dampened (eg, squadron blue, olive green). For the most part, especially in business settings, color is a no-no. The ultimate safe measure, even for women, is to follow the solemnity code of safeness in grey, brown or black.

I find it ironic that in a society which has otherwise promoted the “different drummer” ideal, we express ultimate cool by being expressionless. As an Apple fan, I have to say that Apple stores (and products) have promulgated the creeping chromophobia that is everywhere evident. Every retail store in America emulates Apple – they now have bleached wood floors, birch wood tables, white walls and silver/white gizmos for sale.

We Americans need to quit being so intimidated by a color dictum which is alternately macho and corporate. It may just be that the most assertive, kick ass statement yet to be made is that of a “color revolution”. Bring back lemon yellow, passionate purple and kiwi green. Cranberry red and aqua blue should not lag far behind. Throw a Molotov cocktail into the blandified, uptight faces of the chromophobes. Let’s get past prejudices that suggest bright colors are either too silly or too juvenile. Bright colors are a part of the light spectrum which should tantalize our eyes and increase our visual joy. That we allow fear and intimidation to limit such a basic sensory experience is truly unfortunate. Grandma Thedford was right – a world with color is a less dreary place.

© 2011 blogSpotter