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The film Traffic, directed by Steven Soderbergh was on TV Sunday evening. Originally nominated for Best Picture that year, it lost to pseudo-historical bloodfest Gladiator. What's beautiful about Traffic though is its use of colour to invoke viewer emotion and amplify the perceived reality of each of the film's settings.

If you haven't seen it, the story takes place in three main locales: Washington DC, San Diego and northern Mexico. For the governmental scenes that take place in Washington, Soderbergh chose to film them through a blue filter. The effect is formal and a bit cold.

Scenes of moneyed San Diego were shot with a rose-tinted filter, lending them a late-afternoon, vacation photograph appeal - feels very California.

Finally, the parts of the story that take place in drug cartel-controlled Mexico are yellow - mid-afternoon desert yellow. You can feel the heat, and it's far from vacation sun you're feeling - it's a sweltering unease.

Colour does this on a daily basis - not just in movies.

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Poor pink; if it weren't for young girls, it would continually get a bad rap. Pink gets assigned to children's medicine, Pepto Bismol and even prison uniforms because it demoralizes those who wear them and dampens their escape-thirsty spirit.

Now a Dutch study has claimed that if your car is pink, there's a much lower chance (almost non-existent) that it will be stolen. This is because nobody wants your pink car - not even for free.

Dutch professor Ben Vollaard discovered that pink cars just get stolen less. He says that with car theft becoming a realm almost solely for professionals, the end destinations of most stolen cars are now Asia, the Middle East or Africa. And few people in those places are buying pink cars - or yellow or purple ones for that matter. So those are the ones that sit, right where you left them.

So while a silver car may be appealing - globally it's still the first choice for car colour, followed in order by black, white, grey and blue - you might ask your 10-year-old neighbour Chloe what her preference would be.

If you live in the UK, you can begin shopping for your pink car here.

Another way to get a pink car is to begin your career with Mary Kay Cosmetics who, since the 1960s has awarded 100,000 pink cars to its top salespeople.

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On display at NYC's New Museum until September is a series of three installations by Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander. The most colourful part of the work is the installation, 'I Wish Your Wish'. From now until the end of the exhibit, you can submit a wish here. It can be a wish for love, or health, or the freshest watermelon you've ever tasted. Submitted wishes are then printed on coloured ribbons and hung at the gallery, (which is free of charge, btw). Based on a tradition from the church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim in Brazil, visitors to the exhibit select any coloured ribbon they like. It's said that when the ribbon wears away and falls off, the wish will be granted.

Gallery link here.

Thanks to our friends at The Color Association of the United States who wrote about this beauty we couldn't possibly ignore.

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We love the customization trend, so here's a sweet Summer bit of custom ordering that'll definitely turn some heads. Smart cars is offering a chance to wrap your new little 'fortwo' in any number of custom prints and patterns, including topological designs, streetmaps, houndstooth, racecar patterns - the list goes on. Available to upload your own design also - or for those who wish to play it safter, there's an array of about 30 colours to choose from if you wish to leave the sporting of pattern to your louder friends.

smartlink

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A final tidbit this week is called Colorstrology - a light blend of astrology, numerology and colour theory. Check out what colour and personality traits have been selected for your birthday. Find out here.

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Seattle artist Diem Chau creates moments of memory and nostalgia using unusual - or rather usual - media. Her Crayola Totems offer a playful and colourful way to look at the world. Chau makes herself available for commissions, but I imagine getting her time will become more and more difficult as the number of her followers increases. Below is an image representing how well she achieves likeness. It's quite remarkable given the size of her canvas.

Here's Diem Chau's website.

And her blog.

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Advances in food technology might lead to curing world hunger one day, but for now it brings us Esslack Gold and Silver edible spray paint. Developed by the same folks (or Volken - it's a German company) that brought us Espresso Vodka and Chocolate Glue, Esslack Food Finishes can be applied to everything from salad to spare ribs to sponge cake, and promise to make this year's holiday season - really, any season - especially blingy.

Here's the link. The English version of the page can be found in the top right of the page, but perhaps you don't need it, Fraulein.

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With Spring still freshly, barely here, you may or may not wish to look toward this coming Fall's colours for ladies' fashion, as selected and recently released by Pantone, and outlined in their bi-annual interactive colour report. Rebounding off Spring's sheen and sorbet, this Fall's colours were chosen to enhance the practical woman's wardrobe with some vibrancy and warmth, and probably with some colours you don't already own.

Here's the vibrant link.

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When it comes to naming colours for the marketplace research has shown that some names will be more likely to appeal to consumers than others. Professors Barbara E. Kahn of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Elizabeth G. Miller of Boston College believe buyers are more likely to react positively to either unexpected or ambiguous names.

'Fire Engine Red' for example is no longer a surprise to anyone, so wouldn't make a successful name now - not unlike the use of cliche phrases, which after a while don't mean anything due to their overuse. Duly, if a colour is too off the mark without any sort of rationale at all - say Sassafrass Yellow - buyers are less likely to be intrigued by the joke. There's nothing to "get" - no right answer, hence no emotional investment.

Kahn and Miller also believe a specific but unexpected name will be more successful. The name Michelin Guide Green would give a buyer pause, but speak to a specific consumer. Once that consumer gets the tie, there's a very good chance he or she feels invested enough to become a customer.

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Crayola wants to see how well you know this generation's colour names. Try it here.

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For all of the silver and black automobiles that are sold every year, one set of products we're often willing to be a little colour-experimental with is our stable of kitchen appliances. Turquoise, avocado, almond, stainless (and of course white) could only lead to this - Karid Rashim's line of custom-colour appliances for European kitchen maker Gorenje. Dubbed 'Touch of Light', any of the pieces' colours may at any time be customized according to the owner's whim. In the future, look for customizeable walls, flooring, windows etc. I like where this is going.

See the line and more beautifully coloured kitchen pieces at http://www.gorenje.co.uk.

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Maybe you've spent some time over the last two weeks considering what your new diet will look like this year. Perhaps you've reworked your wardrobe or your exercise routine. Well here's something else you can design yourself. Our friends over at Colour Lovers have introduced a way for you to customize your very own Colour of the Year for 2010. Enter a few attributes you feel describe the year. Select the general hue of your colour and then a few further attributes. You'll end up with your very own colour of the year.

(Enter your name here)'s Colour of the Year

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Thanks to the internet, nearly anything can be found quickly now - including a black Christmas tree. (They call it 'Tuxedo Black', to reconcile any hesitation you may have in buying one for your surly 16-year-old.) Treetopia.com might not be able to get your 'In the Navy' blue tree to you by Friday, but they're sure a great resource to check out for Boxing Day sales. The array of colours is staggering, and they come lit, or not. A nice way to mix a little extra brilliance into your tree next year.

This one below is the Stephen J. Colbert Tree. For real.

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In 1980, Finnish potter Otto Heino attended a ceramics conference in Japan. There he met a Buddhist monk in search of a lost colour: a pale oat-yellow that had been made popular in 4th Century China. The process that made the colour had become lost, because it was so sought after and so esteemed, that those in charge of maintaining its integrity feared it would be applied to substandard wares, in substandard ways. So Otto and his wife Vivika made it their work to rediscover the recipe for the lost hue.

In 1995, just two months after Vivika passed away, Heino rediscovered the yellow. The ceramics world took notice and descended upon his studio in Helsinki. Otto Heino's work took off, and the potter became rich through six-figure sales of his pieces. The Chinese government offered him $1 billion for the rediscovered recipe of the yellow, but Heino refused. He feared, like those once in charge of the colour that the colour would end up being applied to pieces that weren't worthy of it. He died without revealing its make-up to anyone.

It does beg, this question. Would you share something with the world, or keep it close to retain its integrity?

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Introducing '500 Pencils', which is exactly what it sounds like. When you subscribe to this artistic mail-out, 25 coloured pencils will be sent to you, or the extremely lucky one of your choice. A different set of 25 will be mailed every month, for 20 months! 'Social Designer' is the team overseeing this, and their array of colours is beyond staggering. Even better, each of these 500 hues has been carefully and thoughtfully named by someone with a clue. There's Black Forest and Lobster Bisque and Tragedy and Elizabeth and 496 other monikers meant to take your inspiration sensors on a real trip. The true pleasure in this subscription is that it takes almost two years to complete. Making this offer even more inviting is the selection of acrylic display units you can order to show off these little gems. Love this.

Check out these pencils, their names, colours and everything else fabulous about them by clicking here.

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Texting is so wonderful.

Read that one way, and I'm a sarcastic jerk. Read it another, and I'm an earnest techophile.

Mere typed words can't convey subtext, but Nokia is looking to change that. The Finnish communicator recently filed a patent for a system that will tell your friends how you were feeling as you were leaving a text, or voice message - and it'll be done through colour. As your friend is reading your words, an LED in their phone will glow accordingly to how you feel, (or at the very least what you told the computer you were feeling at the time).

This brings about a new level of digital communication of course, involving sarcasm, passive aggressiveness, even lust. The next stage is when the computer itself will read your mood and convey your emotion without your having to tell it how you feel.

It makes me a little nervous when we start conveying all of our emotions through our gadgets. (If only you could read what I was really thinking when I typed that sentence just now...)

Nokia wants to show how you really feel.

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Yahoo's latest offering to the world is a site by the name of startwearingpurple.com. It's a promotional attempt on the company's behalf to convince the world how youthful and cool they are -- in short, by trying to own this 'zany' colour. UK's Cadbury does a much better job at laying claim by leveraging purple's royal characteristics, as opposed to its mystical, sorcerer-lady / town outcast appeal. Unfortunately, the whole thing is a little like watching your high-school math teacher perform an algebraic rap to better connect with the kids.

For what it is, there are some very cool features on the site, including the GPS mapping of a small army of Yahoo branded bikes around the world, each fashioned with a camera. As the bike owner rides through his or her life, the camera takes a pic every 60 seconds and immediately posts the images to the site.

In any case when it comes to owning a colour, purple may be 'cuh-raaaazy' to many, but Yahoo is no UPS.

http://www.startwearingpurple.com

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Well we're colour people so we can't possibly ignore something like this. Cymbolism.com is a new website that attempts to make an emotive correlation between certain English words and the hues at which they hint. Visitors to the site are shown a word and then vote on which colour they believe best represents the featured term. The palette is somewhat limited and the site is still in its early days, but there's something satisfying about it, (and users can suggest their own words for chromatic consideration). The long-term goal is to eventually build a giant inspirational resource of emoto-colour pairings for creatives and crafters alike.

http://www.cymbolism.com

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Gone are the days of black, white, red and blue. Car manufacturers are devoting much more resources to developing colour palettes that both entice and satisfy specific demographics. Ford's been talking about the palette it developed for its all new 2009 Lincoln MKS and in these days of auto-frugality, they took a chance and fostered the creation of a palette meant both to highlight the vehicle's architectural elements, as well as convey a spirit of quality. Colour names like Tuxedo Black Metallic, White Suede, Smokestone and Cinnamon round out this palette of 'liquid luxury'.

http://www.ford.com

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