Dieter Rams Palettes | Hacker News Reader

Dieter Rams Palettes

blog.presentandcorrect.com

190 pointsbookofjoe38 comments

Looks like it's Dieter Rams inspired, not actually his palettes: https://twitter.com/cgpov/status/1214612422956371968

This needs to be the top comment.

The use of hex codes in skeuomorphic representations reminds me of a small detail in branding that I learned a few years ago from a friend.

Because of how the same hex code will translate into different colors on different devices/screens, brands will often define print and digital palettes separately, and their print palettes might also change slightly based on the medium, like on card stock vs. cardboard. Turns out just picking the "same" color across multiple mediums is non-trivial.

It's really hard to get the same perceived color out of a screen (which shines combinations of R, G, and B at your eyes) versus a physical thing (which reflects a subset of the sun's radiation into your eyes).

The way we do this only works for humans, incidentally. Most of the time, different things only appear to have the same color because they happen to map to the same "point" in color perception space, not because they actually produce the same light distribution.

There's an entire company to solve that problem: Pantone.

As well as an entire branch of science: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorimetry

Eh, it’s a nightmare even on entirely digital platforms. The photographer insists on using prophoto RGB. The client tweaks the images in photoshop, and saves them in Adobe RGB. They then upload them all, which converts them to sRGB, which looks fine to them and us on our calibrated monitors. An hour later, their MD calls, furious that on his computer, this blue dress looks green, that beige bag looks grey.

Colour is wildly inconsistent across software and hardware. It’s amazing to me that nothing has really changed or got better in decades. If anything, it’s getting worse, with the various HDR standards.

I think people tend not to see it as a big thing (or even not notice it at all) because colour being wildly inconsistent is the normal case in the real world, due to changing lighting conditions, and our brains adjust for it automatically.

I was trying to make sense of that title. Reading “Diet-er” because I didn’t know who “Dieter” used up more brain cycles than I care to admit. I must be afraid to click on potential clickbait.

Beautiful, however retro palettes, but putting them into this visual form with the hex is really top notch. It reminds me of all the work that’s done in the audio plug-in world to create skeuomorphic recreations of physical devices.

I assume many of you here are familiar with the strength of influence that Dieter Rams had on Johny Ives.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonykosner/2013/11/30/jony-i...

Good artists copy, great artists steal ...

-- Picasso and later stolen by Steve Jobs

This looks really gorgeous. I know skeuomorphism has been out for a while now, but imagine a gui that looks like those images. The buttons not with fake gradients, but physically correctly rendered. No areas of uniform color, but a subtle noise texture making it look real. A bit like the mockups of Microsoft's Fluent Design.

All these pallets are on white background, but dieter Rams made some awesome designs with black being the main color. Of course the ET 66 comes to mind, and my parents owned a ts 501 that I loved as a kid without ever thinking about design or Dieter Rams.

Is there a reason for no DR02 or DR05?

Premium content.

https://twitter.com/cgpov/status/1214612422956371968

reminds me of the website https://www.colourlovers.com/ for palettes.

I don’t understand palettes. They’re super subjective, someone’s taste and you’re just following trends. Why not make your own palette? Why is it difficult to choose harmonious colors? Sounds harder than it is. Try it.

This isn’t just “anyone’s” taste — he’s one of the great designers of last century.

I know who Dieter Rams is. My point still stands. I don’t “get” palettes in general and tools that allow you to make them. I’ve come up with several palettes of my own and they look just as good. Took no more than 2 mins. Have you tried?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Here, have your automatic downvote.

Agree, but also willing to believe there is some objective greatness and nuance to these palettes, solely based on the name attached. If you want to approach making a palette even a little more technically than “5 cool colors”, you can at least reflect on the process that may be behind these palettes or trendy palettes.

I really like this talk: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xAoljeRJ3lU

Amazing.

Banger thanks I was just looking for a book about exactly this

Nice but the most interesting is left out imho. It stops at the human retinas. But the way color then triggers perception would, I assume, also have a very high influence. For example we relate warm and cooler colors to turning forms relate the distribution of brightness and saturation to form, distance etc. Then the precieved forms and colors are related to feelings. So a better suitable colormap for medical images would require more to prevent misinterpretations. 'Pretty' is maybe also subjective but probably not arbitrary...

If I understood correctly they were optimizing for color difference which is a typical goal. I’m ready to be blown out of the water with an objective 10-“emotional slider axis” representation of color theory kind of like you describe.

It might be less subjective than you think. I suspect there are commonalities in how we perceive color palettes, analogous to commonalities in how we perceive musical chords. There are certain color palettes and musical chords that tend to be perceived as more pleasant.

Furthermore, I don’t think everyone shares your ability to pick harmonious color combinations. It must be a skill that you happen to be good at.

I agree. There’s a lot of nuance in color palettes that can lead to changes that are hard to describe.

There’s also something to be said about an expert’s ability to discern the finer details of one version over other versions of the same thing.

How do you test if they're experts?

Seems like you're really trying to defend your point in the comments, but I'd say like you do in other areas of art and design: a portfolio

I honestly can't tell if you're trolling or not. Maybe you're a super gifted color theorist or artist or designer. But if you were, I still feel like you'd understand the value of great palettes over the vast majority out there, which are not.

It's a bit like saying you don't understand why people care about any great artist, because you too can grab some paint and a canvas and make something over a weekend. Sure, but is it truly beautiful? Compelling? Has a clear aesthetic that is of a time/place/context, or a direction forward, or a utilitarian function that merges form & function?

I too have and can create color palettes. They do not look as good.

Creating color palettes is a vastly different endeavor than making a painting.

I agree with what you're saying - that's my take on paintings as well and shallow dismissals of them isn't my core point.

Furthermore, color palettes are a tool and paintings are works of art.

When someone says "Use this color palette", it is important to ask "What specific speciality are you offering?" and what thought process has gone into making palettes which no one here can put a compelling explanation together.

I expect more. I expect objective contrast analysis, some deep color theory...nothing of the sorts exist here. It is not akin to painting or whatever modern art arguments you want to apply here.

> I’ve come up with several palettes of my own and they look just as good.

To whom?

You're assuming that the only purpose of the post is so people can copy the palette outright. I see it more as a way of educating oneself of what others have done to see what works and what doesn't. If you like an artist's work, it's worth analyzing what they do so you can incorporate ideas into your own work (or not).

You should have stopped after the first sentence. Your lack of design knowledge does not invalidate an entire field of practice.

I question what design expertise is needed to come up with a palette that Dieter Rams has come up with. I don’t see any objective or even a deeper understanding of contrast, accessibility, color blindness considerations, application specific aspects, historical analysis, etc. that would be way more illuminating than “Here is a list of some cool palettes from famous designers”.

We are discussing art. Design is a lot more objective than you’re implying.

If you can’t tell what goes into coming up with a palette, then it’s up for debate and questioning.

> that would be way more illuminating than “Here is a list of some cool palettes from famous designers”.

It's up to you to see if it works for you. The OP was just somebody that got inspired to put together some color patches in a presentation that is reminiscent of Rams. It's not any deeper than that but also not a waste of time.

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