Color Strategies, LLC

𝑯𝒆𝒚 𝑳𝒐𝒓𝒊, 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒕𝑮𝑷𝑻 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒂 𝒑𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒄𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆.

Time and money. Let my 13 years in graphic design and color management, 20 years specifying architectural color, and experience building my own AI agent on The Land of Color save you boatload of both.

AI paint color mock ups are no different than any other free paint visualizer or fancy masking in Photoshop.

𝗜𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚.

It’s a matter of physics. Color on a screen is emitted light, not reflected light. So it can *approximate reality*, but it can’t fully replicate it.

It does not matter what you're using to approximate the reality of color.

𝗜𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚.

ChatGPT doesn't do color any better than the first paint visualizers that were launched in the late 1990s and early 2000s. AI is just a newer way to get a digitized mock up of color on your house.

What about all the new AI paint visualizer apps launching now?

𝗜𝗧 𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚.

One app claims to have better Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams colors than AI.

No, they do not.

There is a use case for visualizers and digitized mock ups of paint colors.

That use case DOES NOT include picking a paint color from your phone or computer screen.

Knowing the difference between RGB and perceptual color models is color expert 101.

There are different modalities to deal with the chasm between digitized/online color and color in real life.

For example, PalettePerfect.ai images. I include perceptual color notations, so each color is defined independently of how it displays on any screen.

Gray, black, and white are default choices.

Have they all had a moment in the trend spotlight?

Sure. Probably will again.

Cool grays, all-white kitchens, greige-y leaning neutrals, black and white exteriors give the illusion of safe and failsafe.

Shoving gray (in particular) into a category of “this trend is over” is reductive to the reality of how people struggle to choose colors – especially paint colors.

So while the trend in paint colors has shifted warmer/earthier/toastier, gray/black/white still have seats on the bench. Just waiting for a homeowner who is out of time and mental bandwidth to put them in the game.

When people get to the “we can always go with white” level of despair they think adding black will transform white into a color scheme, hide the decision fatigue, and by the grace of God somehow look fresh, new, and creative.

Color in insolation is one thing, in context it’s part of a bigger story.

And context is a wickedly unforgiving mirror. A black-and-white exterior in a traditional, earth-tone, regionally anchored neighborhood stands out - just not in a good way.

Getting color correct in context means alignment with the fixed elements in a space or on an exterior. Wood tones, stone, brick, roof, flooring, etc.

If you can’t explain how gray, black or white relates – what color relationship loop does it complete – then it doesn’t belong. Full stop.

Giving air to the characteristics that trending, warmer colors have is a good thing. Because you can’t choose what you haven’t seen.

A few examples.

A Paint Color DNA Table subscriber emailed because she thought this swatch was wrong.

Entirely possible.

We have 16,000 paint colors ➡️ typos happen ➡️ figured she'd found one.

She just knee-jerk emailed, didn't bother to Google, because the name implied a deep, muted, purple/red.

The "plum" part does. She didn't consider the "hog" part.

Hog plum is a tropical fruit and F&B's interpretation of the color is spot on.

Hog Plum - the paint color - has what I like to call "decisive chroma". Coming in at 5 on the Munsell Chroma scale.

Chroma - the number - gives you a heads up about how colorful or neutral a color looks.

We have Colorographies for all 16,000 colors from 14 paint brands in the Table because they literally draw a picture of a color's attributes.

Colorography is just one of the tools we use to make color legible. If the fact that color is quantifiable bends your brain, you can just look at the picture.

Farrow & Ball has some of the most unconventional color names, this one’s named after a fruit, and it tracks. Got the photo from iStock, it's perfect.

A Kolormondo is included in your Four Pillars of Color course kit. Putting it together is - let's say - somewhat challenging. :) Here's how the inventor herself does it.

Thanks again,#colorswithchemistry for this excellent instruction on how to put the Kolormondo globe toghether and create yhour own world of color

Today, U.S. Utility Patent No. 12,555,150 was issued for the Color Strategy System. I am the sole inventor.

In a field with no governing body, occupied by self-certifying programs and subjective methods, I chose to subject my system to federal examination.

Instead of asking the industry to *just trust me, I'm a color expert*, I asked an overqualified-third-party, The U.S. Patent Office, to examine it.

A patent is not granted casually.

A process must demonstrate novelty and non-obviousness. It must also be coherent. It must have a defined beginning, middle, and end. It must be executable by someone skilled in the field.

That confirmation matters.

Color decision-making in the built environment has long been treated as intuitive or decorative. It is neither. It is structured, measurable, and resolvable.

This issuance is foundational infrastructure.

We have a roadmap for updates across the board starting with The Four Pillars course. Marketing and messaging strategies also reflect the new Color Strategy ecosystem category the patent entrenched.

As you can imagine, this isn't going to get done in a day. I also have a second patent pending.

But what we can do today, is state on the record that Certified Color Strategists are certified in a patented Color Strategy System.

Many years ago, an artist and educator told me that color notations were “mumbo jumbo”. Meaning measurement was somehow divorced from the experience of seeing.

Then she talked about the active learning she does with her students using the amazing Color-aid papers; she ordered them every year.

So, I asked her a simple question: “How do you think they send you the same colors… every year?”

Silence. 😶

That's when I realized many don't know what it means to measure color or what color models are modeling.

If you don't know, color models model us -- the human vision system. The science is simply the "shorthand" that allows us to capture, communicate, and reproduce the fabulousness of color.

If it exists, it has been measured.

It's a box of Color-aid papers and a box of CIELAB values.

Both are true at the same time.

👉Color Strategist Certification + Paint Color DNA Table available now at thelandofcolor.com

Today's Color Note: Paint expertise is not the same as color expertise.

If you think that was controversial. . .

In my Color Strategist Certification program, I actively teach my students how to make paint store visits as short as possible.

Because the average paint store is where designers go to lose time/money and where homeowners go to lose their minds.

Color entered its decision era 3-ish years ago.

What changed? For decades, paint brands competed on product. More colors, more collections, more content. (don't get me started on the "designer" color collections.)

What people actually care about isn't that complicated - they just want to know how to pick a !@ #%ing color.

Paint itself is a secondary concern behind color. Cue the experts who know paint; they are worth their weight in TiO₂.

As the industry continues its retreat from product competition to decision competition, the advantage belongs to those who build structure where others offer opinions.

👉Color Strategist Certification + Paint Color DNA Table available now at thelandofcolor.com

Today's Color Note: Legible Color

The brief has been briefed. Dimensions collected. Scope and specifications are documented. Milestones mapped.

And color? It’s in pile somewhere: a mountain of chips, memos, amorphously shaped cuttings, or unruly samples.

When color is translated into hue, value, and chroma, it becomes readable. And once color can be read, it can be organized and specified with remarkable confidence.

Legibility transforms color from subjective interpretation to an orderly decision making infrastructure.

Because why just eyeball color when you can understand it — 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚.

👉Color Strategist Certification + Paint Color DNA Table available now at thelandofcolor.com

Today's Color Note: We measure just about everything in the built environment, why not color?

Think about it.

Every detail in a well-designed project follows a process.

But when it comes to color - the decision that visually connects everything - nothin'. Everyone is making it up as they go, reinventing the color wheel on every project.

Imagine having a 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝑶𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑪𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓 that is teachable across teams.

The Patented Color Strategy System™ is a 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒓 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆. It allows color specification to operate inside the professional design process where it belongs.

👉Color Strategist Certification + Paint Color DNA Table available now at thelandofcolor.com

Today's Color Note: Guessing is not a strategy.

The clock runs out. A decision has to be made.

So you do what most people do - you default to your best guess.

If you guess wrong, you know it's not "just paint". It's time, money, project momentum, and your confidence takes a hit too.

It doesn't have to be that way.

The Patented Color Strategy System™ transforms color from a guessing game into structured decisions you can explain and defend.

👉Color Strategist Certification + Paint Color DNA Table available now at thelandofcolor.com