Monday, November 24, 2008

Playing with Color Names


This happens to me all the time! I'll be making my tags for a new item on Etsy and I'll think "blue." But it isn't exactly a perfect blue, maybe it is more cornflower, or royal, or azure, or denim, or cobalt? It can be so confusing that I wish I had one of those mega boxes of Crayola Crayons to help me figure it all out!

And color tags are critical to Etsy treasuries and front page features. Have you noticed the "oh so perfect" shades of biscuit, periwinkle grey, cocoa bean, and apple green?

Since it seems I always have a tag or two leftover with not a thought in my head for what to put there, I'm going to start filling those in with color names...something a little more exotic than "blue," but not as far-out as "Ship Cove." (Yes, there really is a color named "Ship Cove," but I'd bet a dime no one has ever really searched for that color on Etsy!)

So we'll see how it goes. If you want to follow along with me and play with color names for your items, here are a few helpful links:

Wikipedia List of Colors
Wikipedia List of Crayola Crayon Colors
Name that Color (my favorite!)
Color Name and Hue (claims to be helpful for those with color blindness)

Have fun! And don't blame me if this gets out of hand. :)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I totally do that!

Julia said...

Great links!

I think of a box of crayolas and then of food items, and sometimes gemstones for the NovemberAir.etsy work, at least in descriptions. I've always used basic names for the tags though, thinking anything more exotic than "burgundy" is never going to be typed in. Do you think that's true? Those treasuries are always amazingly put-together!