Help me describe a colour

Discussion Open Forum
#1

Hi all,
I’ve been asked to describe the colour used on one of our products, and to tell the truth I’m a bit stumped.

The colour is somewhere between blue and green, with a low saturation (so imagine you add a fair bit of grey into the mix, and quite dark.

So my first instinct was to call it “dark grey-turquoise”, but to be honest, that sounds like arse, so I’m wondering if there’s a list of commonly used words to describe colours anywhere. You know, somewhere that would have words like “olive green” listed (I know that’s not the colour I’m looking for).

Anyone?

#2

Cheese mould colour?

See it here? yaelf.com/colour.shtml

#3

[quote=“Buttercup”]Cheese mould colour?

See it here? yaelf.com/colour.shtml[/quote]

Ha, even if that were the perfect colour, I don’t think I could use it to describe one of our products. I might as well say “vegetarian’s shit” or something.

Anyway, I’m thinking of going with “dark teal”, but still open to suggestions, or links.

#4

In fact, it’s almost like slate grey, but just with a hint of greeny-blue. Hmm…

#5

Actually, that sound good. There are loads of things that colour but few of them have positive associations because it is the colour of decay.

Are they quite sure they want to put out a product where the first association people have is ‘spores’?

‘Concrete duck’ (I mean the green ducks, of course)

(My dream job is to be the person who chooses names for colours of lipstick or nail polish. There would be no lame ‘Tangerine Dream’ or ‘Raspberry Fizz’ in my collections. Please PM me if you are a headhunter for Chanel, OK?)

#6

Teal slate.
Or maybe burgatroyd plimsoll. You’re a tech writer – it’s your JOB to baffle them with bullshit.

#7

[quote=“sandman”]Teal slate.
Or maybe burgatroyd plimsoll. You’re a tech writer – it’s your JOB to baffle them with bullshit.[/quote]

Damn! “Teal slate” sounds perfect. unfortunately I just persuaded them that “dark teal” was as good as they were going to get. I’ll wait and see if there’s a convenient opportunity to change it.
Cheers.

#8

How about “dark teal”? :slight_smile:

#9

Or “Monkey-Shit Green”?

#10

WhatColor is an exe file that gives you not only the RGB values for a pixel on your screen, but also the color name if known.
hikarun.com/e/

An exhaustive list of names for colors. I dare you to find a name for a color that’s not listed.
coloria.net/bonus/colornames.htm

Perhaps your color matches one of the 140 html color names.
web.njit.edu/~kevin/rgb.txt.html#Blue

Crayola makes 120 different colors of crayons. Maybe you can find a match:
crayola.com/colorcensus/hist … colors.cfm

I’m not aware of any resources for Chinese->English color names, but there is one for Japanese->English. Click on the basic color and you’ll get a list of all related colors in Japanese and English, showing equivalencies where they exist.
color-guide.com/e_index.htm

#11

You should ask if you can do a Klingon version, they don’t have many words for colours: klingonska.org/ref/color.html . The word you want is probably “Hurgh” meaning “dark”

#12

Teal, also called teal blue, is a medium to dark greenish blue color of low saturation; a dark cyan.

If it’s not teal blue, but is grayer, maybe it’s close to viridian. Viridian is a blue-green pigment of medium saturation and relatively dark in value.

Check out Coloria.net for an exhaustive list of colors.

It would be interesting to see a site like the Japanese to English color name conversion site for Chinese to English.

#13

Thanks a lot for the links, twocs. Very useful.

Big Fluffy Matthew, thanks for the suggestion, but Hurgh is already used by a rival company for a similar product (it’s a handheld teleportation machine), so if we copied them, they might sue us, except that that sort of company doesn’t just sue you… they blow up your planet.

#14

They won’t dare to, there would be a couple million americans sueing them for that, at least.

Regarding the colours, just invent your own name for it like each car manufacturer does. Ever tried to compare, nice sort of all different kind of names for a green or what so ever. There is anyway no standard for this stuff, just should sound nice (and hopefully has no bad meaning in any other language).

:smiley:

#15

I remember being in a supermarket in the USA once where the checkout lady looked at the name embossed on my credit card and announced “Wow, your name is the same as the paint colour I’ve just used for my bedroom.” (Except she said ‘color’, of course.)

I hate paint companies. Mostly because I’m crap with colours. If you’re bored then try try this ‘guess the colour’ game featuring paint names.

There’s a list of crap names going back decades at this site. Or, if you’re really feeling mental, why not try the dulux site’s colour chooser?

#16

[quote=“Loretta”]I remember being in a supermarket in the USA once where the checkout lady looked at the name embossed on my credit card and announced “Wow, your name is the same as the paint colour I’ve just used for my bedroom.” (Except she said ‘color’, of course.)

I hate paint companies. Mostly because I’m crap with colours. If you’re bored then try try this ‘guess the colour’ game featuring paint names.

There’s a list of crap names going back decades at this site. Or, if you’re really feeling mental, why not try the dulux site’s colour chooser?[/quote]
You’re kidding. Poncey is the name of a colour?

#17

Why not just attach a sample pic for us to see? That way we’re not biased by any inaccuracy in or misunderstanding over your verbal description.

#18

He just told you – teal slate, perfect. Me and Stu are both extremely – EXTREMELY above average in terms of intelligence, wisdom, common sense, handsomeness and penis-size, so if we say it’s teal slate, that should be an end on’t.
And neither one of us is a Poncey.

#19

Irish Gray

[quote=“Loretta”]I remember being in a supermarket in the USA once where the checkout lady looked at the name embossed on my credit card and announced “Wow, your name is the same as the paint colour I’ve just used for my bedroom.” (Except she said ‘color’, of course.)[/quote]Your name is Poncy Beige ?

#20

Well, because:

  1. I’m not allowed to, and
  2. the photo doesn’t accurately reflect the true colour, especially when translated to RGB for web use (every monitor will display it differently).

Anyway, that’s why I originally asked for links to sites with a list of colours, so I could try to find a suitable one myself, given that only I’ve seen it.

And lastly, what Sandman said. :wink: