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Overheard a barista say their shop's new logo failed because the green looked like mold
Ngl, it was a total lightbulb moment. I was getting coffee yesterday and the manager was telling someone they had to redo all their cups and signs. The designer picked this specific sage green, Pantone 16-0225 TPX, but under the warm cafe lights it just looked sickly. They said customers kept asking if the mint drinks were old. Honestly, I never really thought about how ambient light changes color perception on physical stuff. Makes me wonder how you even test for that besides printing a bunch of swatches and holding them in the actual space. Has anyone else had a project go sideways because the colors looked different in real life versus on screen?
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jamesblack5mo ago
Pantone's lighting booth is actually for checking color consistency under different light sources, not just office fluorescents. The real issue is that sage green is a notoriously tricky color under warm light. It always leans yellow or brown. A good rule is to test your final color material in the actual space at different times of day. That cafe should have printed that green on a cup and left it on the counter for a week before ordering a thousand of them.
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sam_hayes35mo ago
My old design professor swore by Pantone's lighting booth for exactly this. That sage green probably looks perfect under cool white office fluorescents.
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stellag215mo ago
My first apartment had this awful yellow overhead light that made everything look sick. I painted a whole accent wall before realizing it was a completely different color in daylight. Lighting can totally trick your eyes, lol.
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