Tiffany blue and UPS brown. The linked article mentions Barbie pink. I'm not even a Red Sox fan, but no love for Green Monster green??
Standards are usually beneficial (in the ways listed), but they have drawbacks, too. Notably, widespread adoption of a standard makes it difficult to replace with a better standard (or not-yet-standard) yet, because institutional inertia makes even positive change economically painful. I suspect we'll see this soon with phone chargers; USB-C is mandated, so when something better comes along, the choice will be to either implement both chargers (costly and wasteful) or stick with USB-C to remain complaint with the law. Whatever the new, better thing is will fail to gain traction and consumers will be stuck with USB-C long after it becomes an inferior standard, until sticking with it becomes more painful than changing.
Tiffany blue and UPS brown. The linked article mentions Barbie pink. I'm not even a Red Sox fan, but no love for Green Monster green??
Standards are usually beneficial (in the ways listed), but they have drawbacks, too. Notably, widespread adoption of a standard makes it difficult to replace with a better standard (or not-yet-standard) yet, because institutional inertia makes even positive change economically painful. I suspect we'll see this soon with phone chargers; USB-C is mandated, so when something better comes along, the choice will be to either implement both chargers (costly and wasteful) or stick with USB-C to remain complaint with the law. Whatever the new, better thing is will fail to gain traction and consumers will be stuck with USB-C long after it becomes an inferior standard, until sticking with it becomes more painful than changing.
I’m definitely stuck on things like this. I see the value in a standard, but think about the unintended consequences a lot.
This is super interesting - a side to colour you don’t often think about: business. I just wrote about my thoughts on colour in 2026, although taking a different steer to you.. https://open.substack.com/pub/admiredbyme/p/design-notes-colour-of-the-year
Thanks for sharing. It was an interesting read!
This seems like the kind of monopoly the EU ought to be breaking open
How does the shift towards neutral palettes square with widespread mockery on Millennial Gray ?
I'm pontificating, but I imagine the shift from gray to beige is less jarring, so it doesn't get the same level of mockery.
Great piece! Admittedly, I'm a fan of burnt orange and Chicago maroon, myself 😉
I've grown very fond of that color combination over the years!