The Coming Iridescence
Let's set this straight: The brown Zune was rather attractive. In pictures it only looked so-so, but in person, in your hand, its luminous green shell made the whole thing glow. That it became some sort of punchline only evidences the internet's bent towards the copraphillic, latent snideness towards Microsoft, and a general unwillingness to step outside of any pre-defined social boundaries about what a gadget should or should not look like.
While you malinger with your silver and black knoblins, other companies are dipping new products into a wide spectrum of colors. JDSU, a paint and pigments company, is showing off its newest "ChromaFlair" and "SpectraFlair" pigments at the SEMA auto show, but the color-shifting paints won't just be on cars in the near future. There's a whole line of products that will be covered in shimmering iridescence, the clear materials choice of today's future, as measured by the "What do sci-fi force fields look like when absorbing blaster fire?" metric. If you don't like the coming wave of soap-bubble paint jobs, don't blame JDSU—blame Halo.
You can see a products gallery at JDSU.com.
Perhaps more interesting than the palette du jour is this paragraph from JDSU's press release, which certainly sounds like science, but of course may be wildly inaccurate.
“Colors project our feelings,” adds Parker. “Silver dominates in hard times, as they have the last few years, while green, which was common during the ‘90s, reflects optimism. White, black, and beige are conservative colors. And red, orange, and yellow are ‘look at me’ colors.”I don't recall all that many green gadgets or products in the '90s. Also, silver is popular because it looks like metal, and metal is the stuff of technology. It seems like there could be some very interesting work done on color trends corresponding with economic turbulence, but it sounds like JDSU is just winging it.
[via Core 77]
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So... Microsoft, with all its billions, can't find a way of taking a decent picture of its flagship product, is what you're saying? Somehow, Apple never seems to have had that problem; even the original beige Macintosh looked cute.
They fix that WiFi and I might just get one, Mr. Johnson.
I have some pre-defined technical and philosophical boundaries there I can assure you.
The killer firmware upgrades made them go up a notch or two with me though.
With all due respect however, you can't blame people for mistrusting and disliking Microsoft.
If you chose an unpopular team with poor marketing (among other things) you just have to live with any criticisms.
That's just the way it is.
Microsoft isn't some fem fatale who's been swept up into circumstances they didn't create for themselves!
I personally like Sandisk's products, but I don't give a floating crap about what people say about them. Opinions are like...well, you know.
(Mine included by all means!) ;)
As for the iridescence, it's cool.
I hope we see it on lots more stuff because that's what the future is supposed to look like kinda, isn't it?
@Halloween Jack: How do you photograph something which only displays its special qualities when moving? I'll grant you, they should have figured it out, but it wasn't exactly a simple question of lighting. This iridescent stuff only works in pictures because we already know what similar paint jobs look like.
@Strider_MT2k: I'm not blaming anyone for distrusting Microsoft. I'm just saying that legitimate mistrust about business practices shouldn't necessarily be conflated with a dislike of their product design. Does not compute.
As for the color popularity, it's not so much the color of products that they are referring to, but car colors:
http://www2.dupont.com/Automotive/en_US/news_events/article20061129.html
According to the article, Silver overtook Green as the car color choice in 2000.
I love my brown Zune.
I remember I was very fond of iridescent colors when I was painting in college. The photos don't justify the colors, because there is something magical when it glows in all sorts of colors as you move.
Perhaps somebody should develop LCDs that can show iridenscence? That would be awesome!
By the way, I'm not sure about the Brown Zune since I haven't seen one yet, I guess I should check one out. But I don't think the recent iPod photoshoots look that good either. At first I thought those are mockups done by a Photoshop Inner Glow filter. But in store, the store lighting and the aluminum surface is so fine that pixels dont justify.
And yes, I do remember Conan O'Brien's *green* Ford Taurus!
- Pak-Kei
(P.S. I tried to register an account here many times, but never got an email. Need help :'( )
Oh, cars! Okay, then I maybe buy that. Thanks for the link, Hal.
As I thought, jdsu is JDS Uniphase, doing fiber optic test and measurement stuff. One of the tech stocks that went sky high during the boom, and then went ka-boom during the bust.
I was actually totally unaware of their foray into the consumer pigment and eye candy market. I wonder if these things will work for DIY on a larger scale than just nail polish.
Yes, JDSU is JDSU Uniphase. I believe this pigment product comes from their color shifting inks division in Sonoma County, California. This division managed to ride out the optical downturn due to the fact that their inks are used for printing currency (first euros and now dollars).
Interesting to see them take that technology to the consumer/commercial realm...
IMO iridescence looks tacky! To me, its screams 'PLastic" like some gift shoppe crap. Even on cars.
dbK
seattle
The laser hologram stickers of the future are going to be AWESOME.
Hmmm, I guess everything old is new again... These paints looks suspiciously like my grandmother's candy dishes - medium blue ones - and she's had those since the beginning of time!
@Joel Johnson: I see your point there.
MS can make some pretty nice hardware when they want to.
i used to subscribe to 'communication arts' magazine back in high school and every year (or 3 yrs, i forget) they would print a color palette of the most commonly manufactured pigments. (like anything else, the more you make, the cheaper it gets to make) it was always 3 colors at the top, then 5, then like a dozen or so, in, i guess, decending order by quantity produced. it was like 'hey, get ready to look at these colors more than you want to!' remember pea green, sunset orange, and yellow on everything plastic in the 70's? or mauve, cornflower blue, and grey in the 80's? it was kind of a side effect to the process of making pigment more than anything else...the complexity setting up a chemical process and all that. i haven't really noticed what the 'big three' colors are lately, but i bet a trip to target is all i need.
LOVE these new colors, btw, but they aren't 'irridescent' per se, but 'dichroic' ...which i more often hear referred to as 'color-shifting' at the paint stores and car shows. manufactured iridescent things (like wrapping paper) tend to maintain the position of a color (this particular SPOT is pink) whereas dichroic things maintain the angle of a color (that part of the object that is FACING you is pink) . dichroic glass is really cool...it will reflect one color while transmitting its complement...very neat stuff.
although, that ball by (yeccch, slave labor!) nike is just plain old boring holographic.