Sunday, May 29, 2011

37. Customer Questions About Undertone

A customer recently made the following inquiries:
  I have just received my color palette, and am happy to get it. I would like to recommend the My Best Colors palettes, but I do have a couple of questions, and would appreciate your answers...

1. Are some warm undertone colors included in cool packets, or cool undertone colors included in warm packets, and if so, why?

2. What percentage of warm is in a cool palette? A neutral palette?

3. What percentage of cool is in a warm palette? A neutral palette?

4. What percentages of warm and cool are in a neutral palette?

5. What differentiates the ... My Best Colors palettes, cool, neutral, warm from each other?

A:  Interestingly,
those are the wrong questions.  You see, colors are made up, theoretically, of various hue mixtures of Yellow, Blue and Red, which are positioned equal distance from each other around the color wheel. This implies that all colors have some degree of warm, neutral and cool elements to them. It's important to realize that the warmth, coolness or neutrality of colors is a relative matter.  A single color note may be warm in comparison to one color note, but cool in comparison to another.  The warm/neutral/cool system is an arbitrary tool to help us work with a group of colors. In that regard, it's a useful system.

However, for the purpose of working mathematically with precise color notes in the Munsell Color Space, uses numbers to name millions of individual color notes. A complex algorithm, performed with computer technology, reduces each color (by hue, value and intensity) to a code that identifies the precise distance (difference) of each of millions of individual colors from your identified skin tone.  Those closest color notes are then subjected to further mathematic screening to exclude all but the colors that are 5, 10, 20, 40 [+60, 2012] and 80-88 (black) contrast levels from the targeted skin tone. This doubling progression lends a solid color-contrast harmony to each personal color palette of 620 [380, 2012] colors.

"Contrast is critical
to controlling color relationships, because contrast is something we can attach a number to. Once we can attach a number to something, we can control it. Once we can control color numerically, then we can organize, arrange and harmonize color. So, in a sense there is no such thing as color harmony. There can only be color-contrast harmony, because it is not the color that we are harmonizing, but the differences between the colors, measured objectively and numerically, just like music." [Master Colors Blog: August 2007] "Harmony is not an opinion or a subjective feeling. Harmony is objective. Harmony's effect is subjective." [Master Colors Blog: January 2008]

I'm so happy to have you as a customer, and please do talk with your friends about this brilliant new personal color analysis system!  Let me know if you need anything else.  I'd be delighted to help.

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