Since the emergence of Instagram’s free photo filtering and sharing app, we have noticed a change in the colors web designers, fashion designers, product designers and stylists in every medium are gravitating toward.
Color tastes change all of the time, and they tend to happen as a social collective. You can almost tell the year something was brought to market by the shade of green that it is. What is interesting about this shift is that it is happening because of the way an app modifies color to suit the color replication of old film stocks like 1970’s Kodachrome, or 1980’s Fugicolor or the famous Polaroid Instamatics.
We grew up selling and using these film stocks. Thomas’ father was a photographer and he worked in a camera store. He showed him the tell-tale differences in stocks. He could tell the year; manufacturer and ISO of a film by looking at a print.
What interests us about this shift is that our new color pallet is coming to us from a technological leap forward that is delivering an historical filter on the present. Now that so much of our lives is seen in through a characterization of Kodak 400 C-41 process, Facebook Blue looks so dated.
Now, when you are out in the wild. look for red with a pink and orange undertone. Look for those earthy yellows. Look for greens that swing just slightly turquoise, tortoise-shell browns, not-quite blacks, and a little gold mixed into just about everything.