What's In a (Color) Name?

A recent Substack post by Lisa in Colour got me remembering my job at the "panty factory" (surface designer for an underwear and loungewear company). 

six packs of prints and solids were typical
this combo sold at Costco US and Canada in 2008

Presentations for buyers looked like this:

sometime in the approval process, the Colorado Clay turned into Green
and the packing order got flipped

As you can see, the prints and solids were given names, to aid communication

I worked in Illustrator, and had a massive swatch panel:

And almost every color had a name!

They needed to be "enticing" names, to not repel the buyers!

If it was a Pantone standard, I would use Pantone's name.

The others? I would scour color charts on Google Images. Or think of flowers. Or maritime things. Or...

If you need a color name for a project, feel free to use one of mine! 

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2025: A-Z Index

The 2025 A-Z Fluevog footwear collection

The A to Z Challenge is held every April. The challenge is to blog through the alphabet every Monday through Saturday. The “A” theme is blogged on April 1st, “B” April 2nd, etc.
More about the challenge can be found on the official Blogging from A to Z Challenge Blog.
Here's the link to the Master List, with all the official participants (link)

A to Z Blogging Challenge 2025: Z is for Fluevog Zandra Wiggle Zaza

The final day of "Blogging from A to Z" with my annual (going on eight years) challenge of drawing Fluevog Shoes and creating repeating patterns with them. Eventually, these designs wind up on Redbubble and Spoonflower.

Today's footwear is the Fluevog Wiggle Zaza, a Fluevog collaboration with Zandra Rhodes

In repeat

available on both Spoonflower and Redbubble

The A to Z Challenge is held every April. The challenge is to blog through the alphabet every Monday through Saturday. The “A” theme is blogged on April 1st, “B” April 2nd, etc.
More about the challenge can be found on the official Blogging from A to Z Challenge Blog.
Here's the link to the Master List, with all the official participants (link)