In Praise of Ochre

I was at Louise Sandhaus' AIGA Fellows Award event last week. I've become sort of a shut-in, so it was unusual for me to go out at night. I prefer to stay in the house and peak out the window behind the shades when anyone drives by. But I absolutely love Louise and wouldn't miss this event. I had a good time seeing old friends and watching the amazing Armin Vit and his very difficult quiz show about design. Louise's work was, of course, inspiring and sublime. I left with many ideas that I could steal.

There are certain colors that will drive any but the most adventurous clients running from a room screaming. Unfortunately, these seem to be the colors that graphic designers prefer. I noticed this in Louise's presentation. "Ooh, I love that green," I would think as she showed a slide, and "That is the most perfect warm red." For some reason, designers love avocado and yellow-greens. Baby-shit is what I've heard these tones called by clients. And we love orange-reds, which are usually met with, "I really hate orange." So we use these colors in our own personal work, or when we get a project with unending creative freedom. I try to use ochre on every project. This is usually rejected. For some reason, nobody can see the wonderfulness of ochre, or butterscotch if you need to sell it. It's a wonderful tone, somewhere between yellow, orange, brown, and green. There was a time when the world embraced ochre. Southwest Airlines used it as a primary color. Porsche called it Bahama Yellow. This was, no pun intended, the golden age of ochre.

If only we could convince the word that bisque, almond, plumb, and mauve were very bad, and return to ochre, avocado green, warm red, butter yellow, and sky blue.