Imagine a colorless world. A world where everything or almost everything is monochrome. It would be like a nightmare, wouldn’t it? This feeling is like living in a black and white movie. All gray and sad and gloomy. But above all, bored. Mainly because the colors make things so much more varied and interesting. For example, everything colorless in fashion would have similar patterns and designs.

The truth is, that’s exactly what happened. Whether it’s cell phones, t-shirts or rugs, the objects we make over the years much less colorful than before. We are creating a much grayer world. And there is proof of that.

Has our world become duller? Yes.

At least visually. This is what emerges from an experiment conducted by the British Science Museum and published on Medium by Cath Sleeman. This museum has hundreds of technological and household items dating back centuries, from telegraph machines to iPhones. What they do is take pictures of more than 7,000 objects and analyze how their colors change over time.

The results are surprising. The chart below shows how there was a riot of color in ancient objects, with many earthy tones representing all the wood, leather and metals used to make things in the past. And over the decades, things are getting gray, with a growing blue corporate brand ribbon. As a result, the world is literally becoming less colorful and more standardized.

The evolution of the colors of the analyzed objects from 1800 to 2020.

The most notable trend is the increase in gray over time, which a reduction in brown and yellow. These trends are likely to reflect changes in materials such as moving away from wood and plastic. The graphic also includes the use of highly saturated colors starting in the 1960s. We can see this in the evolution of the phone. Those from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s covered a wider range of colours. most smart phones today they follow the same scheme: black or silver.

Of course, it should not be forgotten that the examined photographs are only a sample of the objects in the museum collection. Also, these trends will continue to change as new products are purchased.

in all areas of life

more surprising what twitter user The Cultural Tutor is showing in this thread. In it, it shares several areas where the color has faded over the years. One is automotive: grayscale colors now make up three-quarters of cars produced worldwide, compared to less than 50% in the past. How many yellow pickup trucks do you see today?

As The Cultural Tutor shows, one only has to look at a 1980s parking lot to understand the story.

At the same time, change has occurred in all kinds of industries, from interior design, where the garish colors of bygone eras are disappearing, to fashion, where the clothes we buy have also faded over the years. People decided to wear neutral colors and abandon the vibrant prints of other times. You can even see the trend in the architecture of McDonald’s stores.

Graphics: Science Museum Group Collection