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2 October 2019

31 Fascinating facts around colour

Another day, another colour

Bananas change from Green to Banana Yellow when the residing chlorophyll breaks down, letting you know when they’re ready to eat.

Selective Yellow is used for automotive headlamps. In France, it was mandatory for all vehicles until 1993.

Gamboge is the colour of Buddhist monk’s robes. It is attained using dye from the gamboge tree.

One of the original “fruit-flavoured” iMacs released in 1999 was the Tangerine iMac.

Safety Orange is used to set objects apart from their surroundings, particularly in complementary contrast to the azure colour of the sky.

Persimmon the colour is named after the persimmon fruit, which in Korean folklore has a reputation for scaring away tigers.

Since the 1920s, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari race cars have been painted in rosso corsa (“racing red”).

Crimson is the national colour of Nepal. It is also the colour of the country’s national flower, the rhododendron.

Bisque-coloured “leucistic” axolotls descend from a mutant male that was shipped to Paris in 1863.

Demonstrated to have a calming influence, Baker-Miller Pink is often used in prisons to keep inmates relaxed.

Morocco is called the Rose City because many of its buildings are coloured various tones of Rose.

Tyrian Purple, made famous by the Romans and Cleopatra, was made by soaking rotten shellfish in urine.

The Purple Tree Tarantula emits a Purpureus iridescence on the surface of its body and legs, and hunts bugs, lizards and sometimes birds.

The periorbital purplish discolouration occurring in dermatomyositis is called the “Heliotrope Rash” after the colour Heliotrope.

The 1890s are referred to as the “Mauve Decade”, due to the popularity of the subtle colour among progressive artists.

The first recorded use of Amethyst as a colour name in English was in 1572.

Eliza Lucas, who invented the colour Indigo for Levi’s, was only 21 years old when she successfully created an indigo crop.

The turban of the Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer is painted with a mixture of Ultramarine and Lead White.

Your veins look Dark Blue because subcutaneous fat only allows blue light to penetrate skin.

Pale Cornflower has the fun and easy-to-remember hex code #ABCDEF.

Uranus is Cyan because of the abundance of methane in the atmosphere.

Cuttlefish have three hearts and Cerulean-coloured blood.

In 1998, Apple christened the colour of the exterior of the iMac G3 computer “Bondi Blue” after Bondi Beach.

Non–Photo Blue is a particular shade of blue that cannot be detected by graphic arts camera film.

As a trademarked colour, Tiffany Blue is not publicly available and is therefore not printed in Pantone’s swatch books.

The Statue of Liberty was originally a dull copper colour but turned Verdigris, caused by the oxidation of the copper skin.

Botticelli is the colour of the planet Neptune.

Celadon-coloured glaze is commonly used in Chinese and Korean pottery.

Mantis is named after the praying mantis, an insect which has just a one ear, located on the underside of its belly.

Pear Green comes from pears, a part of the rose family. While some species are cultivated for their fruit, others are cultivated simply as trees.

Volt-coloured Nike Air Max 90 Hyperfuse sneakers were introduced in 2011.

A self-published project

Intended to be used as a weekly planner, each page-turn of Another Day Another Colour presents a joyful splash of the spectrum. Embellished with whimsical illustrations and nerdy facts, the book comes complete with HEX and CMYK codes to reproduce colours at will. Reworked into mug and thermos form to make the perfect client thank you gifts.

Illustrations by our talented Tia Alisha — check out her gram account @tia_alisha for more surreal cuteness. 

Bring some colour home with you

We used Blurb to self-publish our notebooks. Get in touch if you would like to discuss how we can bring your book idea to life. Mugs and thermoses were produced with Society 6 — you can purchase your very own from here. 

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