Besides a Mural of Another Color, the other title for this post could be The Ever Changing Mural or The Technology of Color. Intrigued? I was when I first saw this. Not only was I fascinated by the technological ability but how clever the concept was. This mural by Carnovsky is on exhibit in London.
Carnovsky is an Milan based group that creates wallpapers for the Italian based firm, Jannelli e Volpi. The Carnovsky style wallpaper has separated layers in RGB and CMYK color spectrums — very similar to 3D movies — where the lines do not meet up until they can be viewed together using special 3D glasses. In this case, however, you can see the complete mural without special glasses but the individual layers are only visible when viewed in specific spectrums of light. Each color spectrum reveals a different story of evolution.
When Casart Coverings started in the wallcovering industry, we had to learn and understand a lot of the lingo. RGB (red, green, blue) has a larger color spectrum = more colors are visible than CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). Why is this? What are the 3 main colors of the color wheel? Red, Blue and Yellow and all sub colors are made from these. Whereas white represents “white light” = the entire color spectrum, black is devoid of color. Brown, as we were taught in grade school was that muddy color that occurred when all three main colors were combined with our water color paints. Although we were taught to avoid brown, certain browns like chocolate and coffee can be truly beautiful — that’s another post…. Getting back to color spectrums, RGB has two of the three main colors so more things we see are visible in this spectrum. CMYK is needed for the yellow and cyan, magenta and black act as filters to allow for greater variety of color intensity when printing. This is why digital files for printing are done initially in RGB and this profile is maintained when the file gets converted to CMYK for printing. Confusing, but this excellent print international article explains it further.
Understanding the Color Spectrum, which could be another title for this post, is important primarily for this below and we go to great pains to try to simplify and explain reasons why color may appear differently on your computer screen than when printed (via our Custom page). This doesn’t mean that what you see is not what you get, it just means that if you are particular about color and want one of our designs to coordinate with what you have in mind, then it is best to purchase a sample to be sure the printed version works best in your room’s lighting. The light affects the color and what might appear one blue color in a room with Southern exposure may appear a slightly different blue hue in a room with Northern exposure.
Whereas monitors emit light, inked paper absorbs or reflects specific wavelengths. Cyan, magenta and yellow pigments serve as filters, subtracting varying degrees of red, green and blue from white light to produce a selective gamut of spectral colors. Like monitors, printing inks also produce a color gamut that is only a subset of the visible spectrum, although the range is not the same for both. Consequently, the same art displayed on a computer monitor may not match [exactly] to that printed in a publication.
Meanwhile, sit back and delight in what we can see in the visible color spectrum, knowing that light and color can give you a lot to think about that isn’t simply black or white.
And how boring the world would be without visible color or even changing color, like the horse of another color from the Wizard of Oz?
— Ashley
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