[ 彩材拆拆 x 𝗨𝗡𝗪𝗥𝗔𝗣 𝗖𝗠𝗙 ]
𝙲𝚑𝟸𝟿. 𝚄𝚗𝚠𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙲𝙼𝙵 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚐𝚗 𝚘𝚗 𝚚𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚋𝚢 𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚞𝚕𝚊
Ch29. 拆招CMF設計談調色斤斤計較
CMF is a specific discipline within industrial design that focuses on the development of a product’s color, material, and finish. Unwrap CMF writes about little stories of CMF Design for those who are interested in learning more about this niche field. Comments and inspirations are welcome!
For the midcentury house project that I was working on, some metal details needed to be restored to its original color. After browsing through the existing selection, I ended up mixing three colors from Dulux (a consumer-facing brand by AkzoNobel) to finally get my desired shade of warm red 🧡
The repaint task was not finished at once which means I needed to remix the three colors to get the same shade again and again. Luckily, since I’ve worked with colors for so long and there wasn’t consumer-facing pressure, I was able to do it without having to write down a formula to follow through. This method is definitely UNACCEPTABLE for any top paint vendor. 𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩?
Think like this: when baking at home, it’s okay to go off the recipe by a few grams. With your most-confident dishes, you can even go off without having to measure anything at all!
But that is not the case for a nation-wide franchise serving thousands or millions of customers. There is no tolerance for any slightest change in the taste, quality, or food safety.
Same rules apply to paint. This is what happens throughout product development: first, CMF Designers review samples during color fine-tuning, once color and finishing are decided, the formula is recorded by the vendor, which will then be tested throughout trial production cycles. Minor adjustment may happen if the original formula doesn’t pass through.
After the formula is tested and fixed, going off even just by a milligram can mess up the color, which means lower yield rate in production and more money spent. Or worse – put quality to risk. Imagine if the paint starts to peel off in consumers’ hands. What a PR disaster that is going to be?! 😱
No wonder why top paint brands can be somewhat pricier than local shops. The price you pay includes insurance to guarantee the quality and stability that your brand name stands for 👼🏻
CMF為Color Material and Finishing，譯為色彩、材質、及表面處理工藝，屬於 工業設計 旗下重要的一環。Unwrap CMF（ 彩材拆拆 ）將圍繞著這個主題，以淺而易懂的小故事拆解 CMF設計師 的日常。
這個夏天我一直在忙 老屋修復 ，其中一個任務是將鐵花窗的細節恢復原色。因為在目錄中沒有找到心儀的紅色，我最終挑了 得利油漆 的三款顏色再自己調和，最終順利調出我想要的暖紅🧡
整個鐵花窗油漆過程斷斷續續，這意味著我需要一次又一次重新調和油漆。好在因為長年與色彩打交道，也沒有面對消費者審視的壓力，所以我可以自在地調色而不需要小心紀錄比例。不過… 任何頂級的塗料公司都不可能接受這種調色模式。𝙒𝙝𝙮?
舉個例子，在家烘焙時，如果不小心比食譜多了一兩克其實也不會把廚房炸掉。甚至有些拿手料理，完全不看食譜、不用測量配方，就可以輕輕鬆鬆佳餚上桌。
但是，如果今天面對的不是親朋好友，而是數十百萬消費者的時候，情況就不是這樣了。對連鎖的食品品牌來說，任何口味、品質、或食品安全的細微變化均不能被容忍。
油漆產業也是相同的規則。產品開發過程是這樣的：首先，CMF 設計師會在調色時審閱樣品，一旦確定滿意的顏色和表面效果之後，塗料供應商就會將這個顏色的配方紀錄存擋。這個配方將一次又一次地在試產週期中進行測試，如果原始配方沒有通過測試就會一直微調，直到CMF和測試標準雙雙達標為止。
油漆配方經測試穩定後，稍稍有一點點的出入，也可能生出不同的成品顏色，這代表生產 良率 變低，導致生產耗材成本增加。甚至更糟——亂調比例也可能將品質置於風險之中。光是想像油漆如果在消費者手中開始剝落，這會是怎樣的公關災難？！😱
這就是為什麼知名塗料公司的價格會比小廠貴一些，這些價差來自於塗料公司的投入，也是對品質穩定性的保證，畢竟品牌形象才是無價👼🏻
Mixing paint without writing down the formula? Big NO-NO in real production development!
Even for home interior paint, each color in the selection has its own formula for a stable result.
Every color card on the shelf has its own fixed formula.
After the color is selected, the paint is carefully and accurately mixed by computer.
CMF學無止境，歡迎留言補充。
Comments and inspirations are welcome!
Facebook Instagram LinkedIn
