Thursday, October 21, 2010

Color Analysis' Transformation

Color analysis has gone through a major transformation since the 1980s when the four seasons were used. While this was a good starting point, there were limitations, because there were many people who did not fit completely in one season. Things have changed over the years with research and experimentation. So now the categories have expanded. 

The seasonal system was made popular by Color Me Beautiful by Carol Jackson, which was published in 1980. The other book was Color Me A Season by Bernice Kentner which was published in 1978.

The seasonal system was based on the four seasons, Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. Spring and Autumn the warm seasons, while Summer and Winter are the cool seasons. This system presumed that everyone in the world was divided into the four seasons. It was also presumed that everyone had either a  warm or cool skintone. This has caused quite a bit of confusion for many clients as the majority of people worldwide are not just warm or cool but neutral.

Today, we are more informed about color than ever before. You can find twelve to as many as sixteen color categories. This is due to an expansion of the seasonal system of analysis. Different color analyst use different systems but in any case, it is best to have an analysis done by someone who has been trained to identify warm, cool, and neutral categories. The following is a list of some of the categories that may be used:

A. Light , Deep, Warm, Cool, Soft (or Muted), Clear (or Bright).

Some analyst use these categories on their own, but in reality you could be classified as a Light Spring/Summer, Deep Winter/Autumn, Warm Spring/Autumn, Cool Winter/Summer, Soft Autumn/Summer, or a Clear Winter/Spring.
 B.  Some color analysts combine two seasons together. This creates sixteen color categories, for example, you might be a Pastel Spring which is a blend of Spring and Summer. This means that you are primarily Spring with some Summer influence.

Many color analyst are trained differently so you may have do some research to find out which method appeals or makes sense to you and go with that. One method may work better for you than the other.

Here are some sites you can have a look at:










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