Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:21
Alright, Episode Eight Rob, we’re back.
Rob Broadfoot 0:23
Episode Eight.
Don Mock 0:24
So, yesterday we started recording and there was this fantastic inclement weather that came through, right? We were cracking some jokes as hail, rainstorms, all sorts of stuff, it was panic in the streets.
Rob Broadfoot 0:35
Panic in the streets.
Don Mock 0:35
In Atlanta, dare I say. We made a comment about the weather map. Orange, red, purple bands of weather coming through, which kind of got me thinking maybe we should spend a couple minutes talking about color theory, and sort of color principles, how it applies to advertising design. I can talk a little specificity about the evolution of color and production. Printing, being more of an art form than a science. We’ve all got our color printers in the office, CMYK. This toner, that color, and all that sort of stuff. So, I think it’s interesting to think about color principles, and sort of what the meanings are. I think we learn about in art school, at least we learn, you’ve got your primary wheel of color, your red, yellow, blue. All colors can be made from those three base colors, right? We mix yellow and blue together and we get?
Rob Broadfoot 1:27
Green.
Don Mock 1:27
Green. Exactly, right. So, a lot of, we’re mixing paints in freshman year of art school, things like that. Color from a design perspective, and sort of what it means, I think can kind of be an interesting topic. So, there’s a reason why, the medical profession, for example, stays away from the color red, right? And leans more into blue, for example, red being sanguine, and potentially a negative aspect, right.
Rob Broadfoot 1:54
Bloody.
Don Mock 1:55
Yeah. Bloody. But you know, the Red Cross is red. Right? I mean, you know, that’s, it has been forever.
Rob Broadfoot 2:01
Emergency. Emergency.
Don Mock 2:03
So you know, orange potentially being the color of caution. Yet, it’s interesting that that is the primary color of Home Depot, right? And sort of construction in general, things like that. Any any initial thoughts about color from your side of the fence?
Rob Broadfoot 2:18
Well, let’s start with my favorite color. My favorite color is blue.
Don Mock 2:24
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 2:24
I don’t know, I think it’s because I consider it to be a calming color.
Don Mock 2:28
Well, your office is blue.
Rob Broadfoot 2:30
Yeah, my office is blue.
Don Mock 2:30
You painted your office blue.
Rob Broadfoot 2:32
I just like it in general as, I don’t know, it’s kind of a cool masculine color.
Don Mock 2:37
Yes. Well, it is on the cooler shade? Or you think about oranges and reds being warm colors? And blues, potentially even greens, being cool colors? And sort of the feeling that it exudes, alright.
Rob Broadfoot 2:51
Yeah, it is interesting that when you look at color, and again, we sort of alluded to this yesterday on the last podcast. But, the idea that color has such an influence, be it conscious or subconscious, I think when we do work, and that’s why we were talking about the idea that, we’ll pick on logos again for a second. Whenever we show them, we show them in black and white, because you’re always going to need an iteration of black and white. Everybody is at some point. So, you want to see it in black and white, but that allows you to focus on the actual mark itself.
Don Mock 3:27
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:27
And not be influenced consciously or subconsciously, by color.
Don Mock 3:32
Correct.
Rob Broadfoot 3:32
So, I think when you think about color, just in everyday life, or as it applies to design work, there’s the conscious and there’s the subconscious. So, for me, I like blue. I love blue. So, I don’t care what the logo is. I’m always gonna like it, probably better in blue.
Don Mock 3:53
Yeah. Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 3:54
Because I lean towards blue.
Don Mock 3:55
That’s interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 3:57
Regardless of what the subconscious, implications of blue are, in general. I bet you can guess my least favorite color.
Don Mock 4:07
I don’t know that I can.
Rob Broadfoot 4:10
Yeah, you do.
Don Mock 4:10
Orange?
Rob Broadfoot 4:11
No, it’s yellow.
Don Mock 4:12
Yellow? Okay. I was close.
Rob Broadfoot 4:13
I’m not a yellow fan. So, if you showed me a logo in black and white, that I thought was really strong.
Don Mock 4:21
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 4:21
And then you showed me that same at the same time. And then showed me that same logo in yellow, I guarantee you..
Don Mock 4:27
You’d hate it.
Rob Broadfoot 4:27
I’d be like, I’m not a fan.
Don Mock 4:29
Hard pass.
Rob Broadfoot 4:29
Yeah, and that was the reason that we, do that with clients, is show it in black and white, because we don’t want, at least in the first round, you sort of think about it as building blocks. You want to make sure that the foundation that you’re building is strong and solid and that you’re on board with it and you’re not affected by the paint color of the wall.
Don Mock 4:47
Sure. Sure.
Rob Broadfoot 4:48
Versus looking at the architecture of the room.
Don Mock 4:50
Yeah, it’s interesting. You know what the immediate thought came to mind of, when it’s time to sell your house, paint the house white, right?
Rob Broadfoot 4:58
Neutral. Whites and grays.
Don Mock 4:58
It’s always neutral or a taupe or something like that, right? That way everybody can walk into the house. They’re not biased by the room, and they say, a darker color. So, we painted our kitchen, espresso or whatever, making this up. It’s like, the darker colors feel like they’re enclosing you a little bit. It’s harder to imagine your furniture in this floorplan when one wall is accent magenta, or whatever the case may be. So, the absence of color, even outside of design, but in a real estate environment, it’s kind of interesting to think about in that respect to.
Rob Broadfoot 5:28
And then by contrast, what I think is interesting is, generally speaking, everybody’s going to say go neutral, go neutral, when you’re showing your house and you’re selling your house.
Don Mock 5:38
Absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 5:38
However, there’s a trend in appliances, as well as kitchen cabinets.
Don Mock 5:43
I was about to say cabinetry.
Rob Broadfoot 5:44
There’s a trend of appliances in color. You go and look at Wolf and some of the higher end, Vikings and things. They have entire lines that are now, you get your stove in bright red. You get your stove in green, as a way to take something that is generally just an appliance, right? It’s utilitarian. But you sprinkle a little color on it, and suddenly it becomes personalized. It comes in expression of you and who you are and what you like to do. And the same is true with cabinetry, right?
Don Mock 6:15
Yeah, it’s also an interesting focal point. Like your range has gone from black. Maybe, if we talked about the 50’s, everything was white, and porcelain. Or maybe then we went into that avocado phase of coloring.
Rob Broadfoot 6:28
Yeah.
Don Mock 6:28
But then we went to just appliances, or black or white, that way they recede into the room. Then, we went into a stainless steel craze where everything’s stainless steel, it’s kind of industrial. We break in the Wolf’s, the Sub Zeros. Then we started accenting those Wolf’s with colored knobs.
Rob Broadfoot 6:45
The red knobs.
Don Mock 6:45
Wolf had all the red knobs, right?
Rob Broadfoot 6:47
Yeah.
Don Mock 6:48
Now we’ve got the entire appliance, is now that color. And truly becomes a focal point, which I think is interesting.
Rob Broadfoot 6:53
Right.
Don Mock 6:53
So, the evolution of color, both from an advertising design perspective, and then even just out in the real world is kind of interesting. You know, to think about in that respect, I also think to that what has really been interesting over the course of my career in terms of color principles changing, is that we’ve always had one base of color. I mentioned the primary colors, obviously, that all colors come from. Then we talk about printing. We all have our little Epson inkjet printers with our little black toner or cyan. That’s when basically the world became familiar with how the..
Rob Broadfoot 7:27
CMYK.
Don Mock 7:28
Yeah, with how the newspapers were printed and things like that, right? And CMYK, in general? But, something that’s interesting, that we encounter, not often, but from time to time, in terms of showing work is, is the work ever going to be printed or not? And, the big transition in color, from CMYK to RGB, right? Everybody’s familiar with RGB, now, because of websites, because we consume things on screen so much. Our phones are RGB. That’s a red, green and blue, right? Sort of a backlit, projected image of color. The breakdown of how color is consumed by our eyeballs in an RGB perspective, versus a CMYK perspective, are totally different, right? So, if you have a brand that does not transcend, to print materials, it’s only an onscreen branded. We’re a television station, right?
Rob Broadfoot 8:00
Right.
Don Mock 8:16
Or we’re a streaming service, whatever the case may be. RGB color systems can be a lot brighter, a lot more impactful. Think about neon hypercolor of the 80’s, things like that. I’m thinking of a client that you’re thinking of too. That will remain nameless, of course, for the green utilized in their logo, right?
Rob Broadfoot 8:39
Yep.
Don Mock 8:39
And it was a full rebrand of the green. Then, we can’t reproduce this green.
Rob Broadfoot 8:45
In printed materials.
Don Mock 8:46
In printed materials, right? Yeah, cuz it was only an RGB based system, right?
Rob Broadfoot 8:50
Right.
Don Mock 8:51
So, something that we like to think about for our clients and something that we obviously develop, color systems for, is to make sure that that brand can transcend, not only a digital environment, but also a print environment. Then we start thinking about, that print environment on multiple substrates, right?
Rob Broadfoot 9:36
Right.
Don Mock 9:09
If we think about Coca Cola. It’s easy to pick on Coca Cola, in an Atlanta based company, of course. You know that Coke red, is coke red, right? But, we’re printing that red on aluminum. We’re printing it on plastic. We’re printing it on cardboard. We’re printing it on all these different things. Well, that color break the science of that red, and how we break down that red to be reproduced on all these different substrates. So, that in the grocery store, it all looks the same, as a consumer? So, a lot of people don’t even think about these types of things, but these are the things that like are obsessive compulsive to people like us.
Rob Broadfoot 9:42
That’s what I was gonna say is that you mentioned Coca Cola. And even I have no understanding of really color and how color works. I mean, again, light refraction at that, like, I have..
Don Mock 9:53
You mean the conical definition of your eyeball and..
Rob Broadfoot 9:55
Yeah.
Don Mock 9:55
All that kind of stuff?
Rob Broadfoot 9:56
But, even the science of color as it relates to printing, and non printing, and I think most people certainly take for granted Coca Cola red. Well it’s just Coca Cola red.
Don Mock 10:07
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 10:08
But, the art and the work and the science that it takes to get that red perfect across to your point, every single substrate, in every country, at every manufacturing plan. It all, to get that right, and that obviously is a color that they own. That was a color that they created, and they own. But, to get that right, and as many touch points as you see it and as the everyday consumer sees it, is incredibly difficult.
Don Mock 10:32
Yeah. Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 10:32
And there’s a crazy science to it that I think most people, you just kind of..
Don Mock 10:32
You take it for granted?
Rob Broadfoot 10:33
Yeah, you wouldn’t ever think about that.
Don Mock 10:36
Well, even just domestically, you think of different vendors, at the bottling plant.
Rob Broadfoot 10:44
Right.
Don Mock 10:45
The can, the bottling services and putting it in cans. They’re printing it there versus, we’re printing billboards over in Texas.
Rob Broadfoot 10:52
Right.
Don Mock 10:52
And then we’re printing the cardboard paper cutouts or whatever in California, for example, or whatever. All that stuff has to be kicked back, shipped together, and in total alignment, right?
Rob Broadfoot 11:03
That’s crazy.
Don Mock 11:03
So, yeah, let’s not even talk about DoD game. We’ll talk about that.
Rob Broadfoot 11:08
Yeah, another podcast. It’s really exciting.
Don Mock 11:11
Yeah, very exciting. So, color can be incredibly simple upon first appearance, right? But, then when you start to dig into it, if you don’t know what you’re doing, when it comes to execution in a production standpoint, it can become incredibly frustrating and incredibly difficult.
Rob Broadfoot 11:29
Very very true. Alright, we’re gonna end on two questions for you. One word answers. First, what is your least favorite color?
Don Mock 11:37
My least favorite color? Well, I don’t want to say blue, because it’s your favorite color. I got to do a one word answer. My least favorite color: Yellow.
Rob Broadfoot 11:46
Okay?
Don Mock 11:46
It’s the hardest to work with from a design perspective.
Rob Broadfoot 11:48
Don’t like it.
Don Mock 11:49
It just is, alright.
Rob Broadfoot 11:50
And your favorite color? Your best, your most favorite. Gotta pick one.
Don Mock 11:57
Man, that’s tough. I love all the colors. I’m a designer. I love them all. I’m gonna say purple.
Rob Broadfoot 12:05
Oh, okay.
Don Mock 12:06
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 12:07
Okay.
Don Mock 12:07
Yeah, for those that don’t know. Purple. I’m going to sound very elitist right now. But, purple was always reserved as the color of royalty.
Rob Broadfoot 12:15
Yeah.
Don Mock 12:15
Because it was the hardest, the most expensive pigment to manufacture. Way back in the day. I don’t even know what years we’re talking about here. But, way back in the day. It was always the most expensive garment. And I think it had something to do with the flowers, or however we manufactured that pigment, way back in the whatever. So, there is kind of an extra special place of the passion of purple, for me. And you don’t see it super often. You know what I mean? It’s maybe a little bit more exclusive, I guess of a color.
Rob Broadfoot 12:48
Alright, well, fair enough.
Don Mock 12:49
Well, hold on flip back. Oh, no, we got blue for you.
Rob Broadfoot 12:52
We’re on alignment with yellow. Boo and yellow. But, i’m kind of a Blue fan.
Don Mock 12:57
Alright, that’s more than you needed to know about color for today.
Rob Broadfoot 13:00
Well, unlike purple, what is not difficult, is where to find us online.
Don Mock 13:04
Yes, this is true.
Rob Broadfoot 13:06
You can do that of course at mochtheagency.com. You can find us on all the socials @mocktheagency, and if you’re so inclined, and you hear this, feel free to drop us a review, or shoot us a note on what you’d like for us to talk about.
Don Mock 13:21
Absolutely.
Rob Broadfoot 13:21
We’re always open to ideas and things you might want to hear. So, thanks for tuning in and we will see you next time.
Don Mock 13:27
Next time.
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