A short-form series on the color wheels you've never heard of, and why they were built. Each episode covers one wheel: what problem it was solving, who made it, and what it gets right or wrong. New episodes every Wednesday.
Curated by: Color Nerd (18 videos)
The first Color Helm was invented in 1932 by Joseph P. Gaugler (1896-1981). He was a textile buyer, fabric converter, and color trend forecaster who was also, on the side, a serious exhibiting painter. The earlier models in the 1930s were more curated mix-and-match systems. The first one I show in this video, for example, is a wheel for coordinating colors in interior decoration. The later 36-color version, built on Wilhelm Ostwald's color system, was distributed by Winsor & Newton and sold to artists and designers broadly. In this episode (prompted by a viewer comment), I show both versions side by side. We'll also take a look at Gaugler's 1945 booklet "The Story of Color," which reveals how thorough his connections to Winsor & Newton and the British Color Council were. If you watched last week's quilting wheel episode, you'll notice a pattern: Gaugler, like Erika Mulvenna, was another color nerd who worked in fabric and realized the psychological Ostwald system was more appropriate than traditional pigment-mixing theories. This is episode 15 of Color Wheel Wednesday. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the whole playlist! And if there's a color sheel you want to see featured, drop your requests in the comments :) #colortheory #colorwheel #arthistory #interiordesign