ColorSchemer Blog

Perhaps taking a cue from Apple and the various colors they offer on many of their products, Dell has gone a step further and created a new tool to help you find the accessories that match your favorite color and style.

Just select your favorite color from the swatches listed on the page, and then the tool will highlight all of the categories that contain products available in your color.

Looking for some green headphones to match your new green iPod Shuffle? No problem. Wishing you had a pink mouse to go with your favorite pink t-shirt? Wish no more. Searching for a brown carrying case to hold your brown Zune? Well, you’re probably not (since I’ve never actually seen a Zune on the streets), but Dell makes it easy to find those too.

I’m glad to see that companies are beginning to realize that color is not a “one-size-fits-all” component of the product, but rather an opportunity to let customers personalize and develop a connection with their products.

Do you own a product that’s offered in multiple colors (iPod, laptop, etc)? What color is it? Why did you pick that color?

Found via Digg, I thought that the web geeks out there might be able to appreciate this license plate:

And for those who are a little confused, “FF0000″ is the HTML hex code for the color red…

What do Safeway, Walgreens, and Costco have in common? The obvious answer is that they are all large operated American supermarkets. But do you think it’s any coincidence that these three grocery stores – along with others like Winn-Dixie, Wawa, Giant, and Supervalu – all use red in their logo?

A color psychologist would tell you that this is no surprise: red is the color that makes people hungry. Red instantly attracts attention and it also makes people excited, energetic, and increases the heart rate.

In the fast-food industry, look no further than McDonalds, Wendy’s, or Burger King as prime examples of this. These massive companies all have a large amount of red in their branding as well, which subconsciously lets customers know that the chain is high-energy, bustling, and most importantly fast.

Red seems to have color dominance with regards to actual food products, as well. If red foods such as tomatoes, strawberries, and apples aren’t a natural part of the product, often times red packaging is used instead, such as with Coke, Skittles, and Campbell’s Soup. Mmm… maybe you’re hungry now?

A Natural Exception

One notable exception to the red grocery store craze can be found in the new wave of healthy, natural grocery stores popping up, led by Whole Foods. Whole Foods keeps its insignia green. Their decision to use green as the dominant color in their branding helps to promote the fresh, organic selling point they want to be associated with, as green signifies nature.

But even then, stores are finding ways to combine the freshness of green with the energy and impulses associated with red. MOM’s is a great example of a company walking a tightrope with it’s branding, tying in elements of the traditional red with a more earthy green.

So when it comes to food, food branding, and packaging, companies have learned that red is king. Think about that the next time you’re walking into your local supermarket or waiting in line at the drive-thru.

If you’re a Mac developer and you’re planning to attend Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco next week, shoot me an email – I’d love to meet up, say hello, and chat.

Our friends over at COLOURLovers have been nominated for a Webby Award for Best Community Website of 2007…and they need your help!

If you’re not familiar with COLOURLovers, it’s a great community of people that share, rate and discuss colors and palettes (you can even download color palettes from their site directly to Color Schemer Studio!). It’s also a very small community compared to their competition for the award. They’re up against Flickr, Del.icio.us, Threadless, and Yahoo! Answers. All big-time companies with big-time recognition…

So let’s help to put the little guy on the map!

Here’s how you can help:

• Cast your vote:

  Visit pv.webbyawards.com and register to vote. The registration box is on the right.

  Once you’re registered, click the websites category box towards the bottom left and then find the Community under the Connections tab.

• Update: Flickr has won.

With the release of Windows Vista last week, Color Schemer Studio (PC) has been updated to v1.51 to fix a couple of compatibility issues when running the program on Vista.

So if you’ve already made the switch to Windows Vista, or if you’re planning to upgrade sometime soon, you can grab the latest release of Color Schemer Studio here:

http://www.colorschemer.com/download.php

Just install this latest release on top of your existing installation and you should be all set.

With the holidays approaching, a number of great Mac software companies are joining together to give a little gift to the community.

Visit MacSanta to check out all of the participating companies (including Color Schemer), and then use the discount code “MACSANTA” to save 20% on your purchase through any of their online stores.

But act fast, this discount is only valid through December 25!

A few weeks ago, Brad Spry wrote in to let me know he had created a Firefox search plugin that will allow you to search for Color Schemer Gallery color schemes directly from the Firefox search bar.

So if you’re using Firefox, head over to http://library.uncc.edu/programs/firefox/colorschemer.html to install the Color Schemer Gallery search plugin with a single click. The full source code is available, too.

Now finding the right color scheme is as easy as searching Google. Great work Brad!

If you’re on a Mac, like Dashboard widgets, and enjoy looking at pretty colors, then you might like this:

Tentatively called Color Schemer Galleria, a beta version should be available shortly for you to play with.

Color Schemer Studio OSX 1.5.2 (for Mac) is now available!

The biggest changes in this release are that the app is now a (much requested) Universal Binary and will run natively on the latest Intel Macs, and the program also includes a new auto-update system called Sparkle (created by Andy Matuschak) that makes it easy as pie to check for new versions and get upgraded.

So if you’re on an Intel Mac, or just want to stay up to date with the newest releases, head on over to the download page and grab the latest release!

Note: Checking for updates when the program starts up is turned off by default, but if you’d like to be notified the moment a new release is out, you can turn on checking at startup in the app preferences.