It sounds mad in this day and age but only a handful of people get to work with for a master. On Tuesday night at the the EDO event in London Fernando Gutiérrez talked about his time with Tibor Kalman and the legendary pictures only issue of Colors magazine. I actually heard someone behind me gasp when a few of the pages came up. It was obviously news to him in away to many of us it, and Kalman, are part of art and design folklore.
This has been adapted form short film I appeared in for Innovations at Work. Originally published as a short film here.
What was the first major breakthrough in terms of using colour in design?
I think that the major moment in designing with colour is the leap to the reproduction of colour photography. Most brilliantly made relevant by the fashion mags of the early fifties and paving the way for all modern editorial and advertising. It was particularly influential on advertising. The ability to represent products in full colour had an incredible influence over how we communicate ideas about products and their places in our lives. It drove consumerism on in a way that is hard to imagine now.
John Berger said “Seeing comes before words”. How is this useful as an idea? Colour photography it is the most information in the quickest, most primal form. More than a headline or a column of text.
The London specific January-Grey Pantone looks even deeper through the windows of Google’s Technicolor offices. Not only did we have a fascinating meeting but we were given The Tour. Their office is spectacular in many ways. Not just the incredible views of London but the myriad facilities. On the face of it it is not unlike the Wieden + Kennedy scene in Portlandia where a new advertising employee is – hopelessly – trying to get to their meeting past a host of creative endeavours and holistic activities.
ideas/forms/functions 