#chromatophobia

[wscranmore]

From 2013. This impulse art painting is titled, "Chromatophobia", meaning fear of color. Good to see this one again. #chromatophobia (at Milwaukie, Oregon)

[jonnydrawsalot]

I’m doing things with color. Also, thank you @kylenotkale for being my French girl. #chromatophobia #chromatic #color #painting #oilpainting #procreate #figuredrawing #art #illustrator #frenchgirl #philadelphia (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

[dramatic-fanatic-girl]

chromatophobics hate me

- dramatic-fanatic-girl

[rondomingue]

I’ll admit a love for monochromatic design so I must have a mild form.

That is when I began to realize that I had a case of chromatophobia, fear of color. From my earliest days as a designer I loved black and white. Such authority, such decisiveness. To this day, any collection of my favorite personal projects — posters, book covers, packaging — marks me as a follower of Henry Ford, another enthusiast for wheels who famously told buyers of his Model T that they could have whatever color they wanted as long as it was black.

[mappr]

On Chromatophobia.

First of all, I love Pentagram. As an interdisciplinary design studio, the management structure of the company is out-of-the-box, horizontal, and pretty damn awesome. Michael Bierut is one of the partners, and one of my favorites (pretty much my favorite) working there (identity and environmental design, hello). He published this article in Design Observer today that was slightly funny and made me do some serious thinking about colors' relationship to architects.

Notice its architects and not architecture.

For some reason, architects really hate color. The uniform is usually something like black, black, and more black with black hipster glasses. I've definitely had instructors in studio tell us to avoid color because "architects don't know how to use it". It's like the hatred of color has been instilled into the cult of architectural design education, indoctrinating its students and professors and making everyone conform to this larger, symbolic, behavioral mechanism vaguely connected to architecture but also connected to abstract ideals of rationality, modernism, and for some reason (to me), masculinity.

I, for one, have definitely bought into this idea. I probably wear more black than anyone I know, and I do it pretty deliberately. Having a sense of identity is important to me and black (to me) is being immersed in design, whether it be architecture or fashion. It keeps me grounded.

At the same time, it's paradoxical because I sense that the reason why black was employed in architecture in the first place is as a remnant of modernism and technicality - the erasure of identity to have everyone on the same egalitarian scale. Yet it has morphed into this elitist monster: distant, cold, and intimidating.

As a graphic designer at heart, I love using color. It's a very emotional process that requires tapping into a lot of social empathy. Black and white, though decisive, is boring. It's severe and unforgiving. Color on the other hand, humane and inviting. And diverse. And emotional. And everything that we should learn to embrace in ourselves.

If we are building buildings for people maybe its time to take the design studio narrative and step back and let our clothes reflect the diversity of people we want to see happy in our building.

Clearly, this means wearing more color.

[handlethesound]

Stunned Tomcat - Cave ( original Mix ) [ Chromatophobia EP ]

[v1gilante]

Valerian Ducourtil-Chroma Snowboard Contest by Yanis Ourabah on Flickr.