Three days to get a purple that didn't look bruised

I was working on a branding project for a local bakery and they wanted a lavender purple for their logo. The first 12 mixes I tried all came out looking like a bad bruise or too gray. I finally got it right on try 13 after realizing the problem was too much blue in my base. It took me three whole days to stop ignoring that the blue pigment was throwing everything off. Has anyone else had a color take way more attempts than you thought it would?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinl906d ago

13 mixes in 3 days is dedication, I'll give you that. In my experience, the blue pigment issue is super common with lavender because most purples lean way more cyan than you'd expect. Take that with a grain of salt though, different printers and screens can throw off perception too.

rayc836d ago

Actually that cyan point isn't quite accurate. Most commercial blue pigments lean toward ultramarine or phthalo blue, not cyan. Cyan is a whole different pigment with way less red in it, so if you'd tried mixing with actual cyan you'd probably get something even more bruised looking lol. The real trick with lavender is finding a blue that has just a tiny hint of red in it already, like a cobalt or manganese blue. I learned that the hard way when I spent a whole weekend trying to match a swatch for a client's wedding invites and kept getting this gross greyish purple. It's wild how much difference one pigment choice makes.