ex’23 (13. 318)

Courtesy of fellow peripatetic Messy Nessy Chic’s latest batch of finds, we are acquainted with pioneering theorist and consultant Faber Birren (whose given name, from his maternal grandmother’s surname is a flourish of nominative determinism, a close anagram of Luxembourgish for colour) whom after an adolescent period of experimenting with dyes and painting murals pursued a a programme of pedagogy at the University of Chicago. Unable to surrender his conviction in the importance of colour, regarding it as an article of faith, and dissatisfied with the lacking curriculum in his field of study, Birren dropped out and began a course of self-study in 1921, publishing several influential articles on putting chromatics and contrast to use, eventually establishing his own firm with clients including Monsanto, General Electric, DuPont and the US military. Birren was later contracted as a consultant colourist for Disney advising animators for the schemes of Bambi, Pinocchio and Fantasia and with the outbreak of World War II, Birren was conscripted to make work environments safer for the influx inexperienced workers coming to factories to replace the workforce diverted to the war effort. The coding conventions Birren prescribed are still in use today with the best preserved examples being the sea-foam green used for control panels (the object of this investigation and conserved in museums and legacy installations and universally adopted, also with fire-extinguishers), the lighter shades being used on walls and consoles to reduce visual fatigue. The title nom de plume is from Birren’s colour scale of reflected light in the most calming spectrum and sourced from his trade range colour.