In a 1950s tiling update of our 1906 house my parents marched to a different drummer of the standard light blue or pink. They chose my Mom's favorite colors: yellow above and mint green below accented with a black floor and trim. Can no longer find these colors from local resources.

The reason that colors in the avocado and olive range no longer exist is because the primary pigment responsible for that (green gold, nickel azo green, or pigment green 10) is no longer manufactured by industrial pigment companies. It was no longer manufactured after 1985 because some of the chemicals involved in the manufacturing process were considered toxic- but the end product was not. It was a very unique, unusual color which has not been replaced by any individual pigment. A sample of this pigment can be seen at Guerra Paint & Pigment in the East Village. We have the world supply of this now extinct pigment. Pantone is a very interesting color system, but gives little credit to the pigments that create these colors, and more.

Can't wait to get the book!

As a fashion designer and general design nerd, I am a big Pantone fan! Can't wait to take a listen to this when I get home. For anyone looking for a present for their favorite designer, I make jewelry out of old Pantone chips:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Defenestration
(please pardon the shameless self-promotion)

@nina from brighton beach
Our bathrooms in a pre-war building are also pink and black, but more like light raspberry unlike Mamie's soft bubble gum pink.

Nobody mentioned the turquoise blue and pink combos of the late 50s. I lived in a tract home in Detroit and the only thing that differed from house to house was whether you had the pink or blue bathroom!

I think our sense for colors is culturally cosmic. I don't think the predilection for a set of colors over time is dictated. I think they resonate and are then acknowledged.

I have an original a pink and black tile bathroom from the 50's. Pink was Mamie Eisenhower's favorite color.

Does anyone recall the gorgeous 50's colors for Fiesta Ware??
I have beautiful pieces in soft aqua, dove gray and cream. No one makes repros of those..

What about beige in the 70s? Our entire house was beige, even our car was beige...

Someone is talking about colors on the radio -- total mind f***

I strongly associate Avocado Green with my mom, but I think that copen blue is missing in the 1970s palatte. It's a great combination and my mom decorated several rooms around the avocado/copen combination--especially the kitchen. Also I had an old VW bug that I had repainted Avocado and it kind of looked like a moving army helmet.

Fluorescent yellow, green, pink and orange at so totally 80's!

As a costume designer this book is really a gem. I want to say in an age of e-books what a great holiday gift for the designer in your life!

Check out the crayon color options through the years. My child started kindergarten last year and the boxes are huge now:

http://www.datapointed.net/visualizations/color/crayola-crayon-chart/

An appropo segment, as I check in photos with Pantone Color notes to cross-reference against the Pantone chart.

Here's what we use at my job as a digital reference, as oppsed to the old paper fan chart.
http://www.cal-print.com/InkColorChart.htm

I work in publishing, and since the advent of digital printing a few years ago, my beautiful Pantone book has become obsolete - wah!

Pantone was originally a printing ink specification system so I thought the color samples were based on actual historical usage data. Since Pantone inks weren't widely used before the 1960s, I discounted any of the choices from before that period.

But these are all great colors groups and it makes you see that there are no bad colors, it just matter what other colors you combine them with. And working with a shelf full of swatch books and drawers full of PMS paper was so much nicer than selecting e-colors on my monitor.

I had hoped for the color scheme for every decade. I would love to know the one for the first and second decades of the twentieth century. Was Pantone around then?

If got them all right, but if 1980s had been an option for the third one, that would have been my guess - I remember a LOT of neon in high school - ugh!

I found the survey to be too easy..especially the first set. 1970=avocado appliances.
I would have found it trickier if two of the choices for the second two were switched around (1960s ~ 1940s).
But it was fun.

This is like candy for designer color junkies

Phew. Our 3 out of 3 score has confirmed our stature as graphic designers. Also, totally diggin' on the middle scheme. Hi five, sir!

interesting

A bit tricky. Are colors for fashion or interiors or both?

love this survey!!!