Color transcends history. The wavelengths of light…the chemical compositions of the pigments…these things are part of the physical universe. Yet how we apprehend color is a part of our eyes, and our minds, and our upbringings (and involves some quirks unique to human physiology—as demonstrated by the colors magenta and stygian blue). Most of the colors I write about were first mentioned in the 18th or 19th century. Some colors are vastly older—like Han purple (which I like more all the time, by the way). However today I am writing about a color first mentioned in the distant year of…2009. This color found a name after the rise and fall of Britney Spears. The great recession had already set in by the time this color made the scene. I am talking, of course about “Arctic Lime” which was invented by Crayola’s for its “eXtreme” line of ultra-bright colored pencils.
At first gasp, Arctic lime seems like a sad effort by a marketer who was not at the top of his game. Chartreuse and the Arctic do not initially go together in the popular imagination (nor do tropical limes belong in the frozen tundra). Yet the more one looks at this hue, the more it makes sense. It is not the color of ice, but it is the color of the aurora as it sweeps past inhuman vistas of alien frozen waste. Also, Arctic lime may not have a beautiful name, but it is a beautiful color (in its own unnatural and eXtreme way). Perhaps people of the far future will think of this color the way we think of Han Purple and they will imagine us going about our lives in Arctic Lime leisure clothes and neckties. Come to think of it, the color is pretty similar to the high-visability fluorescent green of my bike helmet. Maybe the imaginary people of the future are imagining us more accurately than we imagine ourselves!
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July 20, 2016 at 6:46 PM
Neomys Sapiens
Nice, but i think that it is rather the same than lime with day-glow pigments, which is in use longer than those crayons.
For example, it is popular with some emergency service organisations in Switzerland, such as…
http://bos-fahrzeuge.info/einsatzfahrzeuge/21809/Affoltern_aA_-_StpFW_-_TLF_2_aD
http://bos-fahrzeuge.info/einsatzfahrzeuge/19892/Buelach_-_StpFW_-_MZF
and elsewhere…
http://bos-fahrzeuge.info/einsatzfahrzeuge/106948/Santiago_de_Chile_-_Cuerpo_de_Bomberos_-_TLF_-_B-18
http://bos-fahrzeuge.info/einsatzfahrzeuge/19712/US_-_Wiesbaden_-_US_Army_Fire_Dept_-_FLF_-_Florian_Garrison_6026-02
Speaking of colours, some unfortunate events around my work brought me together with an expert on corrosion. Her website contains some really interesting pictures for the colour-affine. You should not miss that:
http://www.corrlab.de/galerie.htm
In my office hangs a picture of a shrew on a glass plate (photo, with reflection), on which I performed some manipulation with Picture Publisher from Micrografx, such as ‘Solarisation’ and a Conversion into Pop Art colours before a black background. Some people dared to ask. Some still glance uneasy at it and bite their lips. I can’t attach it here and I do not have a mail of yours?
Greets from the Rhein-Neckar pressure cooker. (it has 36.something°C outside and my office is southside. Turning on a fan makes it an convection oven. Any paper is now a sticky note. Baaeeh!)
July 29, 2016 at 3:10 PM
Wayne
Hmm…I have been thinking of writing about “safety yellow” but I can never quite get a handle on whether it is a bright chartreuse (like arctic lime–or more of a yellow). I really like these amazing emergency vehicles, though–and they stand as a great reminder to write about super bright colors used by emergency first response teams. I don’t know why WordPress won’t let anyone put pictures in the comments: it is something I have often dearly wished for. My email is ferrebeekeeper@gmail.com.
Also I am sorry to hear about the high temps where you are. I didn’t even know Germany got that hot! Is has been sweltering here too. I suspect that this is an ominous hint of things to come….