Just to get away from grandchildren (I feel I've been overdoing it a bit), I thought I'd write about paint. Paint colours, to be exact, and their names. They are, after all, words.
I've always been interested in the names paint companies such as Dulux give to their colours. Pretty, whimsical names; names that often have little to do with the colour in question ("dawn"? "nightshade"?). But I wonder how important the names actually are? For instance, would someone be more likely to buy a green named "leaf", even though it wasn't nearly as nice a colour as (for example)the one labelled "dung"? Would "primrose" always out-sell "scrambled egg", even though scrambled egg might go better in the bedroom? A colour chart featuring names such as "blood" and "gloom" and "puddle" could catch on. It would make a change, anyway...
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There are more shades than terms available for rational description, particularly since the convention seems to be that no colour can a name longer than two words.
ReplyDeleteI would love to think that there is a market for colours like Bile or Gout, but I suspect we're stuck with Arabian Sunset or Autumn Shores forever...
Perhaps if the writing goes pear-shaped we could start a company selling paint with unpleasant/nasty names. It just might catch on. We used to buy old furniture from a canny salesman operating from a shed, who produced a catalogue which had comments such as "why would anyone buy rubbish like this?" beside the various items. His stuff sold like hot cakes (do hot cames sell?).
ReplyDeleteMaybe we could try the cakes while we're at it...
ReplyDeleteThe verification word can't really be "clunt", can it? I think that's a brownish-purple paint...