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?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamesblack14d 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.

sam_hayes31mo 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.

stellag211mo 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.