COLOR DIPPING

As designers, we’re always looking for a strong first-read stylistic element that will attract the target user’s immediate visual attention. In the last few years, a trend has emerged that exclusively uses a single color to create this aesthetic hook. Very simply, Color Dipping involves (sometimes literally) dipping a complete form into a single uniform color. The overall effect is fresh, unified, and bold, but of course much depends on the color selected. Ironically, the roots of this trend extend to the commonplace infrastructure that is around us every day: fire hydrants, lifeguard towers, fire extinguishers, these objects have long taken advantage of the fact that a singular bright color has a powerful and immediate visual attraction for people of any culture. In modern usage, the palettes used tend to range from vibrant process and primary colors (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Green, Blue), to pure whites or blacks, Neons (pink, yellow, green, orange) or muted pastels. It can be used with simplified minimal forms (like the Urban Ears headphones), or to reintroduce historic motifs (like the Victorian scrollwork on chandeliers, or chunky 1980s technology), or with entire interior environments (like the Gymnastics venue from the 2012 London Olympics). It can also be paired with a very small accent of a contrasting color, which seems to heighten the effect. Color Dipping is very useful in bringing visual unity to forms that are dis-integrated and broken up into irregular pieces: the single color ties them all together into a cohesive whole, and creates a very strong first-read identity at the same time. It is related to another trend, Color Reinterpretation, but with less focus on reinterpreting a familiar icon. So designers: off the local paint store, and dip away.

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