Whether you’re choosing colors for a brand, creating palettes for a new product line, or designing seasonal packaging, inspiration is a key step in color selection.
Inspiration can come from normal, everyday places, for example:
A party.
The grocery store.
Sporting events.
And of course, the great outdoors. Mother Nature has a knack for creating the most beautiful color palettes.
“Colors for Autumn/Winter 2022/2023 contrast our competing desires for calm and comfort with energy boosting vitality through a range of restful and restorative colors, in tandem with exuberant tones,” said Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute. “As we move forward into an environment filled with contradiction, hues for Autumn/Winter 2022/2023 enable consumers to move fluidly between a range of contrasting shades, allowing them to spontaneously express who they are and how they feel on any given day.”
Designers need to be aware of these trends to create palettes with different shades and coordinating colors that will attract consumers.
Imagine you’re charged with specifying the colors for next fall’s product line palette, and you’re just heading off for a week of hiking in the Adirondacks. Beautiful leaves cover the mountainsides… purples, reds, and yellows. Bright mums, pumpkins, and gourds in every possible shade of orange fill the small towns. Can you remember all those colors and recreate them back in your studio?
Probably not.
Thought humans can discern over two million colors, our color memory is quite poor. When asked to recreate a color we saw even a minute ago, most of us will fail miserably.
But if you are carrying a handheld color measurement device, you won’t have this problem. Instead, you’ll be able to easily capture different shades and take them back with you to the studio. Small yet mighty, spectrophotometers allow designers to harness color inspiration – anytime anywhere.
How to Use a Color Matching Tool
Here's how the X-Rite CAPSURE device can help you move from inspiration to palette specification in three easy steps.
- Place the calibrated CAPSURE against the object you want to measure and press the button. This particular device can measure just about any texture or pattern.
- The CAPSURE will record a precise number for that color and identify the closest color match in whichever fan deck you choose. Repeat for each of your objects.
- When you’re finished, evaluate all of the beautiful colors you’ve captured, and chose your favorites to create your design palette to Pantone specification.
Capturing colors from a real-life color palette can create the perfect inspiration for your designs. You never know when inspiration will hit, but thanks to color science technology, you can always be prepared.
Portable Color Identification and Color Matching Tool
Versatile
CAPSURE accurately reads color on a flat surface to find the closest match in related color libraries. CAPSURE is lightweight and easy to use. In addition to helping designers find coordinating colors for designs, with minimal training, paint store employees can help customers how to match paint and match colors on walls, carpets, furniture, flooring, clothing — virtually any inspiration object.
Convenient
CAPSURE provides color recommendations to aid in the customer selection and design process with Harmony Palettes, Similar Colors and Color Navigation, ideal when searching for extra inspiration. It can also isolate colors within a multi-colored pattern for developing coordinating colors or complementary color palettes. Color information can be recorded and saved for selecting accent colors or downloaded for in-store paint mixing.
Easy to Use
- Preview samples before measurement; zoom in to manually select specific areas or automatically identify the dominant shades from detailed and multi-colored samples
- Goes wherever you need to go; lightweight and powered with a USB rechargeable battery
- Stores up to 100 measurements and features a built-in microphone to create an audio record for each color
- Proprietary, one-click color identification system accurately identifies color components, quickly cross check the best matches between color collections
- Can recall saved colors to create custom palettes and merge choices with popular design applications.
You May Also be Interested In:
Check out these additional resources to learn more about X-Rite color matching tools.
Life of a Color Session 1: Inspiration and Ideation | On-Demand Webinar
Do you work in a competitive environment where complex colors and exciting new materials are being introduced? In this first session we will explain how to use tools to communicate color inspiration accurately and consistently and get to an approved color faster. Watch now.
A Guide to Understanding Color | Whitepaper
This educational tool and how-to guide offers useful information to help you ensure color plays a positive role in the success of your products. Download now.
Color Matching Tips for Beginners | On-Demand Webinar
Successful color matching doesn’t have to be that hard - in fact, even beginners can hit color targets faster when they use a spectrophotometer and color matching software. Watch now.
