02 Nov Sustainable Color Communication: A Four Step Process | Introduction

Is Color Communication a Sustainable process?

Sustainability appears to be a directive for most companies today, however, is the meaning of sustainability really understood or has it become an overused buzzword that is not really achievable¹? Despite the possible overuse and mystery behind the meaning, the idea of creating sustainable products, services or processes seems to be the right thing to do from an environmental and social point of view and therefore, companies are embracing this term and developing high-level initiatives to become more sustainable.

What does it mean to be sustainable?

Simply stated, sustainability means to maintain, support or endure. In process terms, it would mean developing a process that is infinitely repeatable. Some might say that this definition is too simplistic and that one must factor in environmental, social and economic demands of a process. This view that includes the environmental, social and economic demands is commonly referred to as the Triple Bottom Line approach² and is used to today by many sustainable certifications (i.e. Fairtrade³). For the purposes of our exercise to develop sustainable color communication processes, we are going to work on the definition that a sustainable color process is one that is infinitely repeatable and exhibits the positive influence on 3 factors: people, planet and profit.

We will discuss the sustainable process of Color Communication:

Step 1: Color Inspiration in Design

Step 2: Communicating the Color Inspiration to the Supply Chain

Step 3: Realizing the Color Inspiration in the Supply Chain

Step 4: Securing the Color Inspiration reaches the Consumer