when green is not green
DESCRIPTION
Part of a wider investigation in to the relationship between colour and language, produced for my MA Graphic Design Major Project. This book illustrates Pantone Matching System colours that use high concentrations of toxic chemicals or heavy metals.TRANSCRIPT
When Green is not Green
Not all shades of green are created equal
WHENGREEN IS
NOT GREEN
Eleanor Maclure
Introduction
With its abundance in nature, it is no surprise that in recent years both the word and the colour green have become virtually interchangeable with the idea of sustainability and the protection of the environment. With increasing importance placed on efforts to address concerns about the degradation of our environment, ‘going green’ has never been more fashionable. Widely used to represent environmental awareness in design, the colour green is often used to visually communicate a company’s environmental or ‘green’ credentials. Green might be the new black but it does not always mean being green.
Printed material comprises a large proportion of the man-made colour we encounter in our modern world. Off-set lithography, four colour process and Pantone’s Matching System have enabled us to paint the world in glorious technicolor ever more cheaply, over the last few decades. However, this has come at a price. In recent years the design industry has been gradually waking up to the environmental damage caused by our rainbow of printing inks. Through increases in recycling we now know that red-based colours are more difficult to remove from paper, using more chemicals and energy before it can be made into new. Petroleum based inks release volatile organic compounds, polluting the air and water supply, while damaging the health of those who work with them. In their book, Green Graphic Design, Brian Dougherty and Celery Design have compiled a list of all of the Pantone Matching System colours that contain high levels of barium and copper, hazardous metals, which can accumulate in the environment, contaminating water, soil, poisoning wildlife and threatening the health of communities.
This book showcases the colours from that list, in all their toxic glory, as a reminder to designers of the impact of specifying certain colours in design schemes. Among them are a number of green hues that contain Copper-phthalocyanine and are particularly harmful to the environment. Not all greens are created equal and some are little more than greenwash.
When Green is not Green
PMS 123
PMS 137
PMS 1375
PMS 151
PMS 1585
PMS 165
PMS 1655
PMS 172
WARM RED
PMS 1788
PMS 185
PMS 192
PMS 213
PMS 259
PMS 3735
PMS 286
PMS 293
PMS 300
PMS 3005
PROCESS BLUE
PMS 313
PMS 3135
PMS 320
PMS 327
PMS 3272
PMS 3275
PMS 3278
GREEN
PMS 340
PMS 3405
PMS 347
PMS 354
PMS 361
PMS 368
PMS 389
PMS 419
PMS 438
PMS 445
PMS 450
PMS 457
PMS 464
PMS 4625
PMS 471
PMS 492
PMS 499
PMS 4975
PMS 506
PMS 513
PMS 5115
PMS 520
PMS 5185
PMS 527
PMS 5255
PMS 534
PMS 5463
PMS 5535
PMS 562
PMS 569
PMS 5747
