alt Hacker NewsMay I make a case for brown?
- Brown is an extremely warm color, and sucks up all of the ugly blues from unnatural light sources
- Brown pairs well with all sorts of shades and colors, just like the millennial gray and white tones
- Brown can come in all sorts of shades and vibrancies, but is not as stimulating as other colors
- Brown hides dirt, scuffs, and stains extremely well
Humans have spent most of our history being very familiar with the color brown in our natural world. I moved from a modern home (everything in white and grays) and into a 1920s brown home with brown-beige walls and all of its original brown wood accents and fixtures. And then I stuffed it with brown furniture. Not only is it beautiful and cozy, I swear that this was the first year I didn't suffer from seasonal affective disorder in a long time.
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I figure Earth tones will make a comeback at some point, but it will need a different style than the cream and travertine tan colors of the late 90s and 2000s. In 2025, new homes in my area are still built with the white/grey/black palette.
We famously had "The Brown Era" in video game art direction for a while, maybe 2005-2010. Most people claimed they hated it.
"Hides dirt" is a disadvantage to many. Especially somewhere public.
Brown and all its hues is very underappreciated color.
Reminds me of the "ugliest color"[1], the brown Pantone 448 C, selected for use on tobacco products in an attempt to dissuade purchase. However it turned out to be quite nice looking on packages[2], and at last here in Norway lead to no measurable decrease in sales[3].
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantone_448_C
[2]: https://www.vg.no/nyheter/i/ddB3zq/designekspertene-elsker-d...
[3]: https://www.nrk.no/nordland/fhi_-ny-design-pa-roykpakker-og-...