IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2014 - 30

professionalized role in industrial design and manufacperiod on how to employ visually deceptive effects
turing circles - the colorist - who coordinated color
in products and advertising.
palettes for product designers across sectors through
Elsewhere, an illuminating example of American
hard-won knowledge of technical innovations, trends
avant-garde artists' collaboration with industry arrives
in the creative industries, and the desires of the mass
in ch. 6 when the painter Georgia O'Keeffe was commarketplace. Alternately dubbed color
missioned in 1926 to make paintings to
managers, color intermediaries, and
market Cheney silks, with her photograsocial engineers, this profession moved
pher, husband, Alfred Stieglitz, shrewdly
A complicated
from laboratories and classrooms in the
brokering the deal. Stretching across chs.
mix of science,
19th-century to the competitive com3, 7, and 11, the author documents the
industry,
mercial crossroads of the 20th century,
career of Margaret Hayden Rorke, the
and poetry
becoming a central player for new busiesteemed head of an influential textile
ness strategies, including the creation
color trade group, who standardized and
accompanies
of influential trade organizations and
forecasted colors for the apparel indussuch
the pioneering of marketing and mertry and whose success derived from her
concoctions as
chandising techniques that helped U.S.
nuanced understanding of the relation"Neon Sorbet"
corporations expand greatly. What
ship between Parisian couture and the
might today be identified as a palette of
American mass market.
or "Metallic
colors specific to historical periods -
Interwoven into Blaszczyk's loosely
Creamsicle."
say, the 1920s or the 1950s - began as
chronological account of color profesindividual hues arduously synthesized,
sionals is a set of softer, but no less importested, and integrated into product cycles stretching
tant claims about the value added by bright, durable
from chemical dye companies and materials supplipigments to products such as fabrics, clothing, paints,
ers, to designers, manufacturers, and retailers, all in
home appliances, and automobiles. Unquestionably,
accord with the latest consumer tastes.
countless products improved stylistically and techniIn the opening chapters, Blaszczyk rightly emphacally in the first half of the 20th century, and, while
sizes the linkage between technically precise stanit would be difficult to attribute these improvements
dards for color reproduction and the increased utility
to color alone, the evidence presented suggests that
of color forecasts within the textile and apparel indusit was a historically significant factor in the success
tries. Improved standards for color measurement and
of various mass-marketed goods. for the industries
printing contributed to a greater assurance among
involved with automobile production, for instance,
people from different parts of the world that they were
the coordination of color schemes from one year to
referring to the same or quite similar hues. The author
the next among numerous suppliers likely contribmakes the case throughout the book that entrepreneuruted to shorter, more efficient production cycles -
ial approaches by colorists, as with the Munsell Color
from drafting table to showroom. for consumers, the
System in ch. 2, guided industries and consumers into
existence of newly styled products prompted greater
the 20th century. The book compiles a lengthy list
demand. To collect better consumer information and
of personalities who played roles in introducing the
to make it part of design and production processes
American public to vibrant, long-lasting hues.
meant significantly altering industrial and commerAlthough the kaleidoscopic material periodically
cial practices.
takes the form of a rapid-fire sequence of facts conThe negative potential of color management, or
necting assorted color researchers, businesses, and
what Blaszczyk calls "the dark side," is given a parworld events, these narratives eventually become
tial airing in the form of two criticisms of industry
more sorted behind the activities of certain leading
practices: the latent fear that a cabal of industry chiefs
figures in the modern color industries, such as H.
conspire to introduce colors, and the worry that differLedyard Towle, Margaret Hayden Rorke, and Howently colored products lack technical or stylistic innoard Ketcham. If these names sound like characters
vations, thereby becoming obsolete more quickly. The
from a King Vidor film, their vivid portrayals in
author assuages these concerns. first, she argues that,
Blaszczyk's accomplished research bring an auratic
due to numerous competing interests in industrial secglow to copious details concerning these visionartors and due to unpredictable consumer behaviors, any
ies, who were courted by industry groups and major
true color conspiracy would have been very unlikely.
companies to apply new ideas and methods to staid
It was also true, however, that companies and industry
business models. In the engrossing chs. 4 and 5, colgroups forecast seasonal palettes and that these colorist H. Ledyard Towle draws from his experience
ors are formulated by industry professionals well in
as a camouflage painter in World War I to advise
advance of public release. Second, one needn't worry
DuPont and General Motors during the interwar
about color taking the place of true innovation, she
30

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

fALL 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2014