Designing colors

I like designing colors. I have found that really trying to design specific colors is difficult. For a tool I use a laptop computer with an LED-backlit LCD display.

One problem I am noticing is that the gamut seems too narrow. I know that there are colors missing at the edge of the spectrum in the “color picker” tools that I use. These tools initially seem really cool and offer a lot of choice in terms of color. But then, there are actually colors that are simply missing.

To really design colors one would need a different type of display. Perhaps the current LED-display technology used in consumer laptops simply cannot reproduce the colors I am thinking about. But there must be some way to do so. Perhaps it would be possible to create a color-design device using new, experimental LCD, LED, or other technology.

Then again, how would anyone see the colors? No one’s computers or other information appliances would be able to reproduce the colors. This is an interesting problem and is making me think.

It seems that display and lighting technology is still not at the point of really being able to truly reproduce the full spectrum accurately. But one day it will be possible to be in a room and have it completely black, or else pure white – and by white I mean real, accurate, pure white not what people think is white – and then start designing and combining colors.

Interestingly too, if lighting technology really advances, then it shouldn’t be necessary to design for say fluorescent or other lighting which thankfully wouldn’t even exist anymore. Then also it could become interesting because for example ambient indoor lighting would not be determined or limited by illumination technology but rather exactly what people want. So that the brings up the question of what types of light would be wanted. Going beyond the somewhat crude “ambient” or “candlelight” or “soft” designations, it should be possible to precisely design light and create a specific spectrum intended for any purpose.

In fact at that point the concept of “light” will have evolved to encompass dynamic change, that is light will be capable of flowing or shifting in precise ways according to different variables such as time of day, time of month, outdoor light, temperature, humidity, etc. So when you “turn on the light” what you are really doing is enabling an ambient illuminance system which is not static but dynamic.

Perhaps people can even share their illuminance systems and participate in networks. It could be another way for groups of people to be interconnected: by using the same, synchronized illuminance system.

And then there is the idea that this could also tie into sound. It could be possible to create dynamic sound environments which synchronize with the illuminance systems. Maybe there will simply be “ambient designers” or “environment designers” who create entire environments which include illumination, sound, temperature, and other conditions. It would be like being a composer or artist but including other ambient environmental factors.