Colour management is crucial to profitability

Your series of features on colour by Fay Sweet has perhaps opened some eyes to the power of colour as a language.

Colour is very complex. People who are new to employing colour need to be wary of being given formulae to work with. Most prescriptive solutions for success with colour can be shattered by the tweaking of a few parameters; in fact, any aspect of colour usage requires a careful balancing of all (and there are very many), possible factors.

The most important aspect of colour usage which many people fail to address is that of colour management. Colour management is vital if activities such as colour strategies, recolouring or new product development are to succeed.

Numerous examples exist of a high level of wasted finances, resources and man-hours due to mismanagement or lack of awareness on what to do.

This is often the only way in which colour makes profitable marketplace solutions. With colour it’s not what you do but the way that you do it.

Hilary Dalke

Colour Design Research Unit

Southbank University

London SE1