A Color Lesson from Meryl Streep
I saw "The Devil Wears Prada" the day it opened. Meryl Streep ruled over the movie the way her character ruled over the fashion magazine's headquarters. One scene really hit home with me as a designer. Maybe you've heard the plot by now - Andy, a recent college graduate who wants to be a serious journalist, lands a job as the assistant to the bitchy editor-in-chief (played by Meryl Streep) of the nation's premier fashion magazine. She doesn't care about fashion, yet she has to attend the meetings when her boss selects the clothes that'll be featured in the magazine. As another assistant held two blue belts for the boss to inspect…I saw it coming.
Andy couldn't stifle her giggles. To her, and everyone in the audience, the two blue belts seemed identical. But not to me. I had spent the previous morning trying to decide on the right shade of blue to use on my website. I could relate to trying to decide between blue with 60% Magenta and one with 35% Magenta; to me they had different personalities. In other words, I could relate to the neurotic editor-in-chief. Maybe I need therapy.
But then Meryl Streep snapped at the assistant and explained to her, and everyone in the audience, why her choice mattered. The shade of blue she chooses will be popularized in the magazine, it'll be carried in designer boutiques, then department stores, then discount stores. It'll end up being worn by just about everyone, even by those who never read fashion magazines. For better or worse, it'll help sell mountains of merchandise and provide jobs for thousands. It'll end up as an integral part of our surroundings, of our cultural landscape, and ultimately of our consciousness.
Thank God that part was played by Meryl Streep. Coming from another actress's mouth, these words might've sounded like a joke. But she delivered them with dignity and intelligence. Hopefully, she made some people realize that indeed everything around them was designed by someone who obsessed over the right amount of magenta in the red of the movie theatre seats and the yellow of the popcorn bags.
i like graphic
One of Streep's great, non-acting contributions to the movie's production was suggesting a real (or perhaps "reel") life color choice for the film. It was Streep who recommended that the bitchy editor-in-chief's hair be white.
- J.
I'm forever amazed at the way we monumentalize something like color selection when we don't give a second's thought to the thousands of our soldiers who are being maimed in Iraq..just so we have the freedom to focus on color.
You can color me sad. You can also color me someone who supports operation-helmet.org. Did you know our got't does not provide life-saving concussion padding in the helmets of our Marines?
This was on cnn in June. Look it up. The pads are black, but the Marines don't care much about color, just coming home alive.
hmm i know 30magenta or 50% but screw the lives of millions in a country
but humans design our universe it what we do our imagination is a type of design , war is designed dammit
what a world :(
1. Color picks are important to those of us as designers (no matter which direction we go in)
2. Yes, the helmet.org from Cher is important to save the lives of our troopos.
3. Lets keep content in this blog/ezine clean, and keep our political beliefs out of the graphic arts blog. It only sours the original purpose of this blog - art!
Thank you,
This is a forum for professional designers and that's why we focus on things like color. This doesn't mean that we don't care about anything else.
Color choices are important in the military as well. The red coats the British wore are noted as one of the reasons for their army's inefficiency. Their unfortunate choice of bright red made them easy targets. The camouflage that the troops nowadays wear is the product of much research on color. The colors and patterns of the camouflage are re-evaluated for each operation. A lot of research goes into picking just the right colors for each military operation. Faber Birren's book Color Psychology and Color Therapy has impressive statistics on all the lives and limbs saved when color research findings were applied to industry and military.
What makes the choice of belt color funny is that is does not matter. The chain of events that follows would have happened regardless of color. If enough people get behind the selling of anything it will work. I think she gives her choice of belt color such importance to compensate for the truth that it does not matter.
lbogoeva thank you for making mention of this movie. I do agree color choices can be far more important than just being 'red' or blue.' You've also given me an excuse to go see this movie, it looked hilarious, but a chick flick. If I can take something else from it, like a lesson in color, it might be worth the price of admission.
As a side Jennifer's comments were irrelevent and rude to make in this blog, simply put...Can the spam, keep on topic and take your protests to the politians...