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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

DC Stock Art Color Swatches

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This is another page from DC's official style guide, but with an added little bonus for all us graphic designers out there--the Pantone color swatches to be used for each character!

Back when I worked at an art studio that produced merchandise for Marvel, Dark Horse, MTV, and other companies, I don't remember ever getting any official colors to use--for the most part we were left to our own devices.

I love how distinctive those poses by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez are--Green Arrow with his bow, Plastic Man being goofy, Batman a bit stand-offish, etc. (Babs and Shayera arm-in-arm is a nice touch, too--redheads unite!)

For the record, it looks as though the proper way to color Aquaman is to use Orange 021, Yellow 123, and Green 354.

18 comments:

Richard said...

Oh man...some long-dormant graphics nerd cell in me just exploded from an overload of pleasure.

Anonymous said...

Yep, if I had to pick I'd say those are the 14 greatest DC characters ever...with the caveat that The Atom is there, too, he's just standing on Hawkman's right shoulder and we can't see him. Nice stuff!!

Anonymous said...

It amazes me how inconsistently DC colors it's characters, even today, in comics, merchandise, everything! Why they didn't strictly adhere to a color guide like this is beyond me. The company I work for has strict color guidelines, so you would think a multi-million dollar part of a multi-billion dollar company would too!

That is frickin' awesome though1

CHris

chunky B said...

Nice Rob, I likes me some DC Characters with color callouts!

E2C, I'm constantly surprised at how many different ways there is to color the DC Superheroes, each guide seems to have a different set of colors, but they are not alone Marvel does pretty much the same.

Anonymous said...

Definitely Chunky. I used to work for a billboard company, and let me tell you, all the big brands have strict color guidelines. Really surprises me that DC and Marvel don't, or they don't enforce them anyway.

Chris

Adama said...

That is so cool! I really like how they're all not just standing their, they're interacting with each other. You pointed some of them out already, but I also like how Babs has her hand on Arthur's shoulder, and Hal is using Robin as an armrest! I only Black Canary were around, Ollie could be eyeing her :)

Anonymous said...

Just noticed Plas is preparing to trip Flash! How cool is that!

Chris

Dixon said...

Oh, that Plastic Man, he's such a troublemaker...

Wow! What a find, Rob! This is a really neat piece. I love it!

Luis said...

Rob, please, PLEASE, PLEASE include a link to a higher resolution version of this image (if you have it). I've been known to dabble in graphic design myself and as DC fan this color guide is just too cool. Also, the García-López art is incredible as always.

rob! said...

luis, i don't have a larger version, i wish i did! sorry!

RobOrange said...

This chart is wonderful!

I have searched a source for it because I want to print it out.

Anonymous said...

The DC Vault has one in it. My LCS guy let me open one and page through it. Thanks, Joe Murray of Captain Blue Hen Comics, Newark DE. Great guy and a great shop.

Anyway, the Pantone numbers you listed aren't a 100% correct. the orange should be 021 Pantone Orange and the green is 354, not 254 which is a purple.

Nevertheless, it's cool how much design went into something like this.

Cindy Healy

rob! said...

cindy-

thanks for the color corrections. the image i posted is the biggest one i have so i had a rough time making out the Pantone colors (i used to have a Pantone book, but i think its buried in some box with other art supplies i don't use anymore).

duly corrected--and funny you mention the Blue Hen, i've been there!

michael chang sue said...

Check out the site "Batichica" in the month of January 2008 for the image which can be enlarged.

Anonymous said...

http://bp1.blogger.com/_7DVEaAl6_ug/R5-f-t1mo7I/AAAAAAAAAgs/GxVkQsEE4w0/s1600-h/img006.jpg

Anonymous said...

I want to paint my son's bedroom in the batman colours but am having trouble finding the right colours. Can someone please tell me the pantone colours for the blue / grey and yellow used. I can't see them on this site so would appreciate any help. Thanks!

ColorWerx said...

Not only am I an Aquaman geek, but am a color geek as well. I have been researching Pantone (and other color values) for sports teams for years now (http://www.colorwerx.us and http://colorwerx.blogspot.com), but have always been interested in "official" colors for comics characters as well.

Oh - and for the record - PANTONE Orange 021 has only been in the Pantone library since 1987, so it must have been something different prior to then (165? 172? 151?)...

ColorWerx said...

...ok...just noticed the copyright at the bottom of the image states '1982'...I'll get to the bottom of this...Pantone states that Orange 021 wasn't added until 1987...