Is "Black & Red" the new Black?
by , (6 comments)
I’ve made a curious observation recently, and felt compelled to bring it up in this public forum. I’ve been noticing that some of the perennial design powerhouses are starting to push design back into a fascinating color palette choice: red and black.
Now, I personally find this a disturbing trend, because I don’t care for this particular combination. I find it heavy, ominous and oppressive ó not exactly buzzwords for feel-good pop culture ephemera. But, it’s clear that million-dollar focus groups feel otherwise: both Coke and Apple appear to be betting pretty heavily on the color pairing. At relatively similar moments, each of these brand juggernauts released their newest, hippest product clad in red and black. (Incidentally, each with a hint of silver, and a “2-letters-in-a-rounded-corner-box” logo to match.)
Last time I can recall a relatively large use of the two colors together was a few years back when the Atlanta Falcons football francise brought black heavily into the mix and wore uniforms that were often primarily red and black. The experiment must not have gone over terribly well: a season later, they evolved the color palette to black ó with a tiny hint of red. I thought perhaps that was the last we’d see of those two colors mashed together.
Alas, I was wrong, and naive to think that the cycle wouldn’t come back around sooner or later. But, what I’m trying to figure out is which aspect I find more interesting: that the powers that be are trying this combination again, or that two of the top ten popular culture behemoths ended up trying it almost simultaneously.
What I’m most curious to see is whether this will cause us to see a lot of companies playing follow the leader, or if the trend will fade as quickly as it arrived. When do we get to relive the “Red, Yellow & Blue” is the new Black days?
Comments (6)
Tom Nemitz said:
My high school’s colors were red & black. The Fort Dodge Dodgers. I see your points, but I’m naturally kind of partial to them, Drew. :)
The Falcons are back to red & black this year, by the way. The bizarre swoosh stripes are what bothers me about their new uni’s. I’m kind of a traditionalist when it comes to sports uni’s. Give me the Penn State no helmet logo, nothing but a number on the jersey style, any day.
Posted on November 23, 2004
Drew Davies said:
Tom, this is where a red-blooded American guy would take you to task for appreciating the color combination of red & black simply because it was the only thing you could cling to attending a school where the sports teams were known as the Fort Dodge Dodgers. Did they have a contest in the local elementary school to name your team?
But, I won’t go there, because it would require me to lead into a statement something like “my high school colors were red and black, and I still hate those two colors together.” That thought’s not so embarassing, but after I say that, it’s liable to come out that I attended Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mascot: the Links. That’s right: the Lincoln High Links.
So, just pretend I didn’t say any of this.
Posted on November 24, 2004
tim biden said:
So the nazi colors are truly OK now? I thought red and black would forever be associated with nazis. How soon we forget.
Posted on November 24, 2004
TJ Lomas said:
I’m with you Tim, I associate red, black, & white with Nazis.
Actually I was shocked when I first saw the U2 iPod, because it looks like it could have been SS issued in an alternate parallel universe. Bono is so politically minded I can’t believe he’d sign off on an iPod that smacks of WWII fascism. Maybe it is supposed to be ironic, but I suppose Bono has less control of his bands branding and identity these days.
Posted on November 24, 2004
Nate Voss said:
Red and black are a great color pallet, if you can call it that, and everyone who has so much as a tenuous grasp of graphic design history should appreciate it on that level.
Let’s talk about association since it’s been brought up. Association is the enemy of every designer that seeks to be original. It’s not hard to associate red and black to Hitler Germany, and everything about Hitler Germany was bad — except they had some really strong graphic design. Seriously, I dare anyone to rebuke that those murderous, geneocidal (was that word even around before the nazis?) war-mongering bastards had great designers working for them.
Association with something negetive can be the ruin of good design, and it is a shame. It’s also one of the realities of our profession.
Back on topic, open the Meggs book (you’ve all got it somewhere) to any page featuring Lissitzky, Tschichold, Rodchenko, Bayer, and many others and you’ll see the ol’ pallet. If Graphic Design had a flagship color pallet, it’d be in Black and Red. Black and Red is the old black, not the new black.
Posted on November 24, 2004
p berkbigler said:
I have to toss in the fact that we’re also just a step shy of the color palette of “The Incredibles”, most of the OXO line of kitchen utensils, several toolboxes, power tools, cars, etc. - I seriously think we’re getting pretty far afield on this topic when we immediately link these products to some sort of Nazi aesthetic. Red and black were around as a color combination long before (frankly not unlike the swastika itself) any of the designers for the National Socialists decided they were going to jump on the bandwagon.
If you’re going to refer to Megg’s discussion of the strength of Nazi design, I’d immediately suggest you additionally pick up “Perverse Optimist” and read Kalman’s critique of evaluating pure aesthetic without also examining the social and political ramifications of what that aesthetic promoted / permitted. It’s a call, again, for us to examine the ethics of the designers we revere in our own history - great design to promote genocidal tendencies tends to lose its flavor in my estimation.
However, I don’t see Apple or Coke moving in that direction any time too soon.
Posted on November 26, 2004