I know as someone affiliated with architecture and not Interior Design I should be somewhat ashamed to say this, but I am a color nut. I think it stems from my days as working as a graphic designer, but I love color standards, whether thats ICC profiles or standardized colors like the ones in the Pantone Fandecks. This is why I love the myPantone app for the iPhone.
This app was released on September 10, 2009 and has been covered by many of the big tech blogs recently (here, here and here). This app allows you to make color palettes on the go. They can be pulled by hand from the Fandecks within the app (only one can be in play at a time), or they can be extracted from an image. The program allows you to choose an image already on your phone or take one with a camera. Once you have an image selected you can have the app automatically choose colors from the image and map them to the current active Fandeck or you can choose them yourself. This is where this app is really useful for architects. Do you have a client with a work of art that you want to set the mood for the rest of the project? Or maybe you’ve passed another house with the perfect exterior trim and siding palette, just take a photo in this app and send yourself the color palette from the photo. This color palette can be imported into any Adobe CS4 product or uploaded to the myPantone website as well as shared on twitter and facebook. Now you have the colors saved and you can go about finding a suitable match from a stock paint color or have a custom one mixed to match. Be warned, this app will give you a good estimate, but it is not a professional print matching tool. And while there still may be no color calibration available for the iphone, at least by using industry standard colors like Pantone’s Fandecks you know that if you use a calibrated monitor or printer or a professional print house, you will be working with consistent colors.
The only downside to this app is that it is a bit pricey at $9.99, but as a business expense it is well worth it. I tried out some other free color apps and none were nearly as helpful. I even tried the Benjamin Moore color matching app (which is free), and while it allows you to select favorite colors and match from a photo as well, it has no way of offloading your favorites. If Adobe ever releases an app version of their Kuler software and web site I would imagine that it could give myPantone a run for its money, but knowing Adobe they would probably price themselves out of the market.
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