Inside Colours
Date: 2007
Commissioned by: Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein (DE)
Type: Project
When you put your clothes on in the morning you know unerringly and immediately whether to choose cotton or a light, smooth silk, or whether to opt for a heavy woollen or tricot sweater. You are used to reading and interpreting textiles. That also goes for the colours. You know the combinations that you like, what suits you, what colour will positively reinforce your personality on that day and what you feel comfortable in.
All that intuitive knowledge and those preferences seem to suddenly disappear when it comes to buying furniture. Unerring decision making turns into a cautious and uncertain process.
When we choose furniture we tend to prefer wool or cotton, a dark colour like black, brown or grey, and a single brightly coloured accent, such as a red solitaire chair or side table. While we can sometimes be quite daring when choosing colours for the wall, we are usually very cautious when it comes to furniture.
There are various reasons for this. We want to keep furniture for a long time, so there is more pressure to make a lasting decision than when we buy clothes. On top of this, selecting the right colour combinations for the interior is difficult as we usually have to rely upon memory, which is not that accurate when it comes to colours. If we cannot recall all of the colour shades in our house, then how can we be sure to select the right colour to create an attractive palette with the other furniture? Another complicated factor is the judgement that we seem to pass on each carefully chosen colour. This is in contrast with what we find in nature. When have we ever suggested that the green of a particular bush clashes with that of grass? But if we choose a shade of green that clashes with another colour then we are often ready to make a critical judgement. Whilst the idea of beauty and ugliness does not play a role in nature, this is an important factor in our wardrobe and interior. Such judgements seldom or never concern a colour on its own, but practically always the combination of colours. What’s more, these judgements sometimes change over the course of time; what was considered wonderful a hundred years ago is not necessarily the same today. It is clear that the spirit of the times plays an important role when it comes to making judgements regarding taste and particularly with regard to deliberate decisions. How does the spirit of the times relate to the subjective character of each judgement on taste? After all, even among professionals there is no absolute truth. That does not mean to say that nothing can be said about colours. The project Inside Colours by Hella Jongerius clearly demonstrates this.
Jongerius carried out extensive research into colour intensity, harmony, atmosphere, the functional effect of various colour combinations, the relationship between material and colour and the relationship between the spirit of the times and the colour spectrum associated with that temporal spirit.
Inside Colours comprises a large cupboard containing furniture objects from the collection of the Vitra Design Museum. The artefacts are arranged according to colour and demonstrate the changes that have taken place over the course of time—the attractively weathered surfaces of the wooden Rietveld furniture, the brash obtrusive colours of the 1970s and the rich, earthy hues of Charles and Ray Eames’ plastic seat shells. In addition to the furniture, 45 porcelain vases by Jongerius are displayed which show the same colour nuances as the furniture, but with subtle contemporary variations. And then there are one hundred plastic miniature chairs from the Vitra collection, each and every one with its own colour. They represent all the possible colour intensities of a glossy plastic skin. The old chairs, vases and plastic miniatures together show how colours look entirely different depending on the type of material.
Three layers of curtains, which move past one another at different speeds, are draped around the cupboard. Their colours are not only inspired by the furniture from the existing collection but are a reinterpretation of the same colours. The movement of the layers of cloth continuously results in different colour combinations, which are documented by a camera. The complementary colours red and green form the basis, since according to Jongerius they constitute the heart of a furniture colour collection. Jongerius also designed an extensive grey-brown colour collection: cold and warm greys, greenish and reddish-brown colours. These earthy colours soften the brighter hues of red and green and provide harmony between the more striking hues. And finally, some smaller sheets of cloth show bright colour accents, whereby yellow and blue serve as the principal colours.
Together the colours form a rich palette with differences in luminance, saturation and hue, reflection and nuance.
The aim of the colour research is to develop an extensive colour palette for the skin of Vitra furniture, covering a range of materials such as foamed plastics, injected moulded plastics, anodised metal, lacquered metal, woven and knitted textiles, varnished and stained wood as well as leather. The palette will serve as a guide for a colour library for Vitra, and Jongerius will actively use the palette in restyling the existing collection.