Asian Paints Colour Code
Organisation | Aum-i Artistes
My Role | Concept, Creative Strategy, Copywriting, Account Management
How can a paint company help interior designers
gamify the colour decision-making journey?
Context.
India’s leading paint and decor company, Asian Paints approached Lemon Design to build an innovative, interactive toolkit to help design professionals and architects visualise, experiment and make informed colour choices in a fun, engaging, and game-like manner.
As the lead creative strategist and copywriter at Lemon Design, I worked with a team of in-house designers and photographers at Asian Paints to create bespoke content for an interactive colour toolkit named ‘Colour Code’ that helps designers visualise and experiment with different shades and textures in real spaces as part of their colour decision-making journey.
The strategic unlock was to devise a physical deck of cards (simulating the joy and creativity of card games) that blends rich Indian cultural tropes with the vibrant diversity of landscapes, personalities and moods.
Ethnography.
Given the sheer density of colours in India, the team fell into a severe rabbit hole of ethnographic research, colour theory analysis and creative intuition games for weeks. I also interviewed designers from across the country to understand what they wanted from a tool like this. It was unanimous: the toolkit needed to be playful and delightful while staying true to the values of what makes Asian Paints unique.
Brand identity.
The Colour Code identity is bold and bright, and is anchored in vibrant Indian colours. The core palette is inspired by the Asian Paints logo, from Poppy Red to Dandelion Yellow. These are paired with a beautifully tactile and warm range of secondary hues inspired by different landscapes across the country.
How to use the Colour Code.
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Select your category & theme.
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Each theme has 10 set of cards with a wide range of visual inspirations and attributes depicting the theme. Choose the relevant cards that make your mood-board and build on a theme.
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Turn the cards around and you have a ready palette. Choose these colours in suggested proportions to make unique combinations, and associate the attributes mentioned.
To enhance the usability of the tool, distinct colour categories (Inspiration, Culture, Personality, Moods) are codified to inspire and communicate seamless imagination. Each category is further highlighted via themes showcased through mood-boards to aid the colour decision process and create a seamless colour experience, along with actual colour swatches for each theme. The theme showcase employs a wide range of use-case driven imagery, prioritising their recall value and popularity.
Designing for depth
& rhythm.
The system weaves abstract and realistic imagery, and balanced colour palettes, in striking layered compositions. Such an approach lends greater depth and rhythm to the process of visualising colour, imbuing the experience of colour picking with measured clarity and confidence. The experience is further enhanced by the colour proportionality illustrated on each card, reinforcing its suggestive, open-ended nature.
Interpretive Storytelling.
Such an interpretive form of design-based storytelling makes it easy to mix and match ideas, with playful nods to Asian Paints’ colour expertise, allowing users to skip and shuffle their way through the cards.
With 10 varying themes and 10 cards per theme to choose from, the outputs trigger a diverse range of results to feed any designer’s relationship with colour: spanning the spectrum of everyday to ethereal.
The toolkit also includes a glossary of colour terms and a guide to colour psychology, serving as a valuable resource for interior designers to anticipate how certain colours will be perceived in different environments by understanding the impact of colour temperature and its interaction with light sources.
These cards went on to become an inspiring resource for the design community and a platform to shine a light on the creative process of imagining spaces that are both visually appealing and functional.
By providing imaginative representations of how colours interact with each other in real-life settings, it helped designers make better colour choices and create spaces that truly stand out.
12 months into Colour Code’s launch, Asian Paints reported a 38% spike in user engagement, 22% sales growth, and a 15% boost in brand equity, ultimately contributing to a 10% increase in market share for the company.
Colour Code 2.0
Colour Code was a labour of love, and I was really moved by all the amazing work we did and the insights into colour theory accumulated along the way.
If I could go back and do it all over again, I’d love to collaborate in building out an augmented-reality (AR) version of this toolkit for a wider public so that everyone can have always-on access to relational intelligence and colour-based thinking as broad forms of therapy. In that vision, designers would be able to use their phone or tablet to see exactly how a particular colour plays out in a real-world space.
Living in colour.
The colours we choose to surround ourselves affect us more than we think. We feel colours more than we see them. Whether your choice of colour feels as cold as a mountain through mist or as possessed as a pair of sunflowers in the breeze, there’s a Colour Code to match your interiorities.