High concept readers, this is a post about phenomenology and color in design. Low concept readers, this is a post about chillwave architecture.*

The popularity of antique color wheels and paint samples on ffffound (Jude Stewart over at Imprint recently commented on the trend in an eloquent piece here), Web 2.0 sites collecting color combinations, and Pantone’s ultra-popular line of accessories all seem to confirm that color — the ultimate subjective design element — is (still) having a moment.

So what does it mean in the grand scheme of design histories & theories?

One, color in design operates of a cyclical basis. What’s old becomes new again. Two, design is going through an emotional subjective phase. Call it a reaction to the recession, a reaction to the unfeeling plasticity of late ’00s, or a reaction to the overwrought self-seriousness of recent starchitecture.

Designers seem to be interested in the idea of evoking subjective feelings in users, rather than constructing objective spaces for them.

In the architecture world, this is known as phenomenology — the realm of Alvar Aalto, Charles Moore, and (according to some) Steven Holl. Simply put, it’s about designing for sensory experience. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, father of the movement, explained it as such:  ”In perception we do not think the object and we do not think ourselves thinking it, we are given over to the object and we merge into this body.” Allow us to translate: the experience of space is completely personal and can’t be verbalized, named, or categorized.

The last time phenomenology had a moment in architecture was the late seventies, when architects and designers, liberated by the counterculture of the ’60s and ’70s, were experimenting with graphic and material sensory manipulation. The ’80s and ’90s brought us the kind of formalism and precociousness we’ve come to know as ‘contemporary’ architecture. But as of late, the scarcity of big project budgets and a growing self-awareness among designers of formalism’s bloated ego has brought back phenomenology as a viable design strategy. And in a lot of cases, that means color. It’s cheap! It’s expressive! It leaves a lot to the user.

We would also argue that the blogability factor of color-heavy imagery plays a part in its popularity. Millennials love stuff like this.

We know: color and the spectrum effect specifically are mocked by design snobs as cheap crowd-pleasers. But chill out, bros. If it looks good, it is good. So switch on Gayngs and check out the following.

Olafur Eliasson, Your atmospheric color atlas, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2009-10.

Olafur Eliasson, Your atmospheric color atlas, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2009-10.

The Pantone Hotel, Brussels, Belgium.

Rainbow Thieves, Fabio Novembre Installation, Moscow Design Week. Via Abitare.

Rainbow Thieves, Fabio Novembre Installation, Moscow Design Week. Via Abitare.

Antique color wheel, via Imprint, Photograph © 2002 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. via The Creation of Color in Eighteenth Century Europe by Sarah Lowengard.

James Turrell, Sustain Light (2007), works go on view at the Gagosian Gallery October 13, 2010. The show will incorporate a (decidedly un-chill) exclusive piece that will only be seen by those who sign up in advance for one of the slots via the Gagosian website.

*Known in some circles as ~~~ chill ~~~.

by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

posted in General

tagged color, graphic design, night blogging

more articles by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan