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Why is the world losing color?

(www.culture-critic.com)
322 points trevin | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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JKCalhoun ◴[] No.43558833[source]
Wow, so much to rage about from the article.

I am a huge fan of color and go out of my way to buy bright colored cars, phones, etc. (Not like I had any viable options for my MacBook Pro though).

Resale value, it hides dirt well are some of the sadder excuses I hear for buying gray and "silver" cars (wouldn't be cool if they really were silver, not "metallic gray"). Meanwhile you spend your entire time owning the car and driving around like a brooding storm cloud.

Color grading might be the most evil thing to descend on film making. It's to the point of distraction now. Like it draws attention to itself. (Watching "Mickey 17" in a theater and a scene comes on that screams "color graded!" and then it's become all I can see. Kind of like the nausea-inducing, shaky "hand held camera" thing that was so predominate some decades ago. Good riddance to that.

Oh well, I guess all I can do is to keep voting with my shopping preferences.

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ryandrake ◴[] No.43559341[source]
Another thing that might also play a role is this styling trend of vehicles looking "meaner" and more and more aggressive. This was discussed[1] a bit on HN a while ago. Bright colors don't really match the "My vehicle is going to punch you in the face" styling (for cars and especially trucks) that has become popular.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32425520

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9rx ◴[] No.43560953[source]
I'd say farm equipment has embraced the same "meaner" trend, but has also doubled down on bright, vibrant colours.

Noticeably, though, the colours don't date the equipment. 20 years ago the colours were the same, and 20 years from now it is very likely that the brand new ones will still feature the same colours still.

That hasn't been the case for passenger vehicles. They are famous for having a colour available this year and gone the next, so if you have one of those no-longer-available colours it sticks out like a sore thumb as looking old. Which is what I believe the consumer truly fears – owning a car that looks old and dated.

The blacks and whites have remained consistently available, so it is far less risky.

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WorldMaker ◴[] No.43572594{3}[source]
Farm and construction equipment the colors are dominated by brand. Team Green Equipment versus Team Red Equipment versus Team Yellow Equipment versus Team Orange Equipment, pick your side. Each side is effectively monochromatic within whatever their brand tolerance is for their brand's color. John Deere's green is a very specific single Pantone shade and has stuck to it consistently as long as color standards have allowed them to be that consistent.

From a buyer's perspective there's still a choice of color if you have no allegiance to brand, but the monochromatic tribalism of each brand (and their loyalists) is strangely fascinating.

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1. 9rx ◴[] No.43572803{4}[source]
> Team Orange Equipment

Case in point. The last of the ACGO tractors in orange now look old and dated even though the otherwise _identical_[1] Massey Ferguson tractors from the same era still look relatively modern.

[1] Technically they had different engines, but that isn't visible anyway.