If your not familiar with the new Goe™ System then read this. One of the most frequently asked questions in my Color Control Freak 08 seminar so far is “when will there be a downloadable library for Adobe CS3 Creative Suite applications?” The official answer is, “I don’t know”. The unofficial answer is, download it here.

If you’re running OS 10.x then you may have to use stuffit expander to unzip the installer. After unzipping then just install. The installer will take care of everything else.

However, the library is pretty useless without the PANTONE® Goe™ Guide and it would even be better if you owned the whole package including Goe™ Sticks and Palette Playground.

Thanks everyone in Minneapolis, Kansas City, Portland, and Denver - it’s been great to have such a diverse group of color control freaks, from Textile Colorists to Ink Mixers - Sublimation Printers to Newsprint Pressman we have had everyone wanting to know the latest trends in color psychology, measurement, and workflow.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., March 17, 2008 – X-Rite, the world leader in color management and measurement technologies, along with recently acquired PANTONE, Inc., the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today introduced ColorMunki, a breakthrough in both price and performance.

Based on X-Rite and PANTONE’s deep understanding of the photo and design communities, ColorMunki solutions are the industry’s first easy-to-use, convergent technologies developed specifically to feed the artistic imagination of creative professionals – at an affordable price. Designed to meet the requirements of creatives working in a digital environment across industries, the revolutionary ColorMunki family ensures accurate color from inspiration to final output in ways never before possible.

“Our all-new ColorMunki portfolio reflects a deepened commitment to customers. We’ve developed solutions for distinct segments of the creative community facilitating an unprecedented digital workflow that seamlessly incorporates color. The exceptional ease-of-use has extended the appeal of our solutions. Finally, color excellence can be integrated effortlessly into anyone’s creative vision, setting a new industry standard,” states X-Rite Senior Vice President of Global Sales & Marketing Iris Mangelschots.

Meet ColorMunki
ColorMunki solutions provide photographers and designers new technological advances that – for the first time – address core issues of color creation, control and communication in easy-to-use, integrated solutions. The ColorMunki portfolio includes ColorMunki Photo, ColorMunki Design and ColorMunki Create, all supported by www.colormunki.com. The products are a combination of software and hardware that give creatives freedom and flexibility to create and produce with color confidence.

The ColorMunki Portfolio Includes:

ColorMunki Photo
Designed for the digital workflow of social, wedding and portrait photographers – or anyone passionate about photography – ColorMunki Photo delivers an easy, quick and affordable solution for matching colors from display to print.

Developed with professional photographer input, ColorMunki Photo is a completely integrated, versatile solution that calibrates displays, projectors and printers, measures ambient light and captures spot colors. The new AppSet automatically sets the printer profile for the user. ColorMunki Photo also includes new, exciting color creation and communication tools, such as automatically extracting colors from images and transporting images with DigitalPouch to ensure ViewSafe environments. ColorMunki Photo gives photographers ultimate color control for their images.

ColorMunki Design
Developed for graphic professionals from freelancers to corporate in-house designers, ColorMunki Design provides the freedom and simplicity to select, specify and store color palettes in a calibrated environment, assuring precise color viewing and reproduction. Palettes can then be seamlessly imported into popular design applications including Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and QuarkXPress, as well as other industry-standard applications. Colors can be selected from multiple sources including PANTONE Color Libraries, system-level color pickers, inspirational images, color harmonies and key word searches. ColorMunki Design allows users to quickly and accurately capture colors from any surface, easily calibrate monitors, projectors and printers for accurate display-to-print matching, and verify spot colors for process-safe reproduction in any medium.

ColorMunki Create
ColorMunki Create is an affordable, simple starting point for designers whose primary requirement is color palette creation. ColorMunki Create offers spectral color selection from system-level color pickers, inspirational images, color harmonies and key word searches, with the ability to snap-to PANTONE Goe Colors for repurposing into usable palettes. In addition to software, ColorMunki Create offers a simplified approach to on-screen color control to let designers realize their creative vision. ColorMunki Create is easily upgraded to ColorMunki Design using the discount voucher included in the box.

All three solutions are supported by www.colormunki.com, an online portal where designers and photographers can experience key ColorMunki software capabilities such as create, share and view color palettes with peers, search and select colors from images provided by the www.photoshelter.com community, and test their color-viewing ability with an online test. Creatives will also be able to purchase any of the ColorMunki solutions directly through the Web site.

Pricing, Availability and System Requirements
ColorMunki Photo and ColorMunki Design will be available in late March 2008 at www.colormunki.com and other photo, design, major electronics and online retailers for an SRP of USD $499/€429.

ColorMunki Create will be available in June 2008 at www.colormunki.com and other design and online retailers for an SRP of USD $149/€129.

Additional PANTONE Color Libraries can be purchased for use with ColorMunki Design and ColorMunki Create from www.colormunki.com for an SRP of USD $19.95/€19.95.

The ColorMunki family of products is compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and Windows XP and higher.

Pappalecco hired encompus to design and develop its identity and brand style guide, custom Website, and a Enewsletter marketing solution. Read More…

The color Orange is now popular but that wasn’t always the case. According to Leatrice Eisman in Color Messages and Meanings published 2006 by Hand Books Press, The fruit that gives its name to the color dates back to 500 BC with origins near the South China Sea. It was known as the “fruit of the gods” and the sometimes sweet citrus made it’s way into Renaissance paintings.

In the last decade, the color orange has made a comeback. It’s very popular among many different business, including ours. Orange is highly visible and denotes optimism. Orange is outgoing and vital. It complements blue. Vibrant orange is physical and seems to be constantly in motion - calling for attention. As orange gets closer to red the emotion of the color changes from playful to “of the earth” - calling attention to life force.

For some, orange is the color of transition. It presents itself in fall with the changing of the leaves. A color in between summer and fall, it’s the color of the setting sun and signals the coming of winter.

According to Eisman, the color orange “will be here for a while” who spoke recently at the Colorworks conference sponsored by the AIGA. Take a look around and notice the wonderful color orange, it may surprise you.