b'anniversary featureResene left: Resene SpaceCote waterborne enamel was a breakthrough productthecolourpalette,explainsColin.Ochresareverystable,Resenes first colour chart wasdid you know?Pearl Lusta for Resene, one that is incredibly popular today. Not only did we designtheyve taken on everything that Mother Nature can throw atfor its Stipplecote cement the paint, Resene designed the pigment that went into the paintwhich isthem. Red oxide will stay red forever. But manmade pigmentspainta product that company the thing that gives Resene SpaceCote some of its magic, says Colin. Wallare far more delicate and tend to fade more. So, the challengefounder Ted Nightingale begunResene was the first company and plinth sides in Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen tinted to Resene Juniper,has always been to create synthetic pigments that can resist theformulating in his garage. Wallto offer a full range of testpots Resene plinth and tabletops in Resene SpaceCote Low Sheen tinted to Reseneand box in Resene Pearl Lusta,in New Zealand in 1981. The Black White Blue Smoke and party favours and gift boxes in Resene Green Meets Blue,elementsto try to recreate the beauty and durability of naturaltable in Resene Vanquish and Resene Resene Japonica, Resene Pearl Lusta and Resene Sorrento. pigments, and do it consistently. ribbons and party favours inrange of testpots has grown Sorrento WhenwestartedmakingourowntintersandwhentintingResene Japonica. since those early years, and Resene Resene Resene production was brought in-house, it caused us to really beef up ournot only do these iconic 60ml Juniper Blue Smoke Green Meets Blue expertise in that space and it gave us the ability to be more creative.containers give designers and We created new bases like red and yellow when everyone else wastheir clients the freedom to using white, which allowed us to get into bright greens and blue reds.test out Resene colours in they wanted to use in their work, as producing all 101 differentIt allowed us to expand our colour base and our core colour offering,situ but they have also helped coloursand doing it consistentlywas too daunting a prospect.which is a significant part of Resene. many small businesses and But Resene had the full range on offer. artists to experiment with We put a lot of work into the system of building colour, butColours for every surface colour in their own work and then once we were able to get technical in doing that, the betterAnother crucial development came when Resene begun expandingmany DIYers to add colour to the aesthetic and the more creative we could get with the coloursfrom decorative paints into industrial and heavy-duty paints. Thetheir small projects.we were able to produce, says Colin. tinters for the architectural paints were somewhat delicate, so we ReseneInsatiable desire decided to make a set of industrial tinters that we would match to theJaponicaarchitectural colours. Architectural paints were mostly waterborneReseneA very important person in making that happen is DianneThis was a watershed colour chart for Resene because it requiredWhile offering up those first 101 colours was a ground-breakingor solventborne, but protective coatings had to go into all sorts ofVanquishConnell,ResenesColourController.Forthepast30years,us to make the move into tinters. Prior to that, we only had a fewmove at the time, it wasnt long before the appetite for even moredifferent bases and be made of all sorts of different things. ReseneDianne has maintained the overall control of Resenes meticulousdifferentcolourchartsavailable,whichweremostlyfocusedoncolours grew. Colin says this choice was among Resenes greatest challenges,Hippie Greencolour standards. She works with Resenes marketing team tocertain products such as Stipplecote concrete colours and semi- The decision to do BS2660 was driven by the architects,but it was a decision that laid the foundation for the biggest colour monitor the progression of colour trends and identify the huesgloss enamels, says Colin Gooch, Resene Technical Director. says Colin. David Launder, who had recently returned from thedevelopment in the companys history. In 1985, the Total Colourhealth and safety requirements, as they can also affect colour that will make up the latest edition of the Resene The RangeBeforetinters,theprocessformakingpaintwasmuchUK, brought the chart and presented it to Tony Nightingale, whoMulti-finish System was launched. Combining an extensive rangestability, but making everything in-house gave usand continues fashion colours fandeck and helps with the update and creationless refined. As Colin puts it, they would take some sticky stuff,was in charge of Resene at the time. He was particularly keenof colours with interlinked tinting systems for both interior andto give usthe ability to be more agile. Lets get physicalof other charts as needed.mix some pigments in and then hope that it would come out toon having us replicate some of the strong colours. But Tonyexterior, the flexibility and adaptability of this colour system wasMixing paint colours is called subtractive colour, so the Creatinganewfandeckisabigtask,onethatincludesthe right colour. determined that we would do the whole lot. It was a build it andwelcomed with open arms by specifiers and decorators alike. Continuing to innovate colour you see is the colour that the paint does not absorb. researchingpotentialnewcolours,selectingwhichoneswillIt was a difficult thing to get a certain colour right, he says.they will come sort of idea. The launch of the Resene Total Colour System was significantSince the establishment of the Resene Total Colour System,For example, yellow paint appears yellow because it absorbs get mocked up, working through the laboratory formulas andMost pigments were powders, which were difficult to control.The swinging 60s brought an explosion of colour and pizazz.to the business. The ability to offer colour across the entire range,having enough colours to choose from is no longer a commonall colours except yellow. Mixing light colours, which are approvingproofsofthefinalproducts.EachfandecktakesPowders tend to stick together; you have to grind and grind andResene Hippie Green came out and using bright splashes ofdecorative, architectural and industrial, was a world firstoneissue. In the 1980s and 90s, Resene began to focus on findingidentifiable by electronic RGB values, is called additive over 12 months from first research to finished fandeck, and itsgrind to get them to separate, so its quite a tricky and lengthycolour like that suited the times. Younger architects, in particular,that wasnt matched for more than 15 years, says Colin. ways to present and curate their collection in a way that was morecolour. This means that the object gives out (emits) colour. Dianne who makes sure each and every hue meets Resenesprocess and you could only have a relatively small number ofwho wanted to make an impact were really interested in usingAll we wanted to do initially was make good paint. But in orderuseful for specifiers. A television uses additive colour because it emits colour. exacting colour standards. But how those standards came to becolours available for that. If you ran out of a colour, it could bethese colours, so we had to get it right. to make good paint, you have to make good colourthe two goFirst came the Resene Whites colour range, which broughtEven if the room is completely dark, if you turn the television is another story. weeks before the next batch was ready. hand-in-hand. Other companies looked at colour as an adjuncttogetherclassic,contemporaryandfavouritecoloursthaton you can still see the colour. Due to these different colour But when tinting systems came into existence in 1969, it was aStrength in numbers to what they produced. What Resene looked to do was to createappealed to designers who were seeking subtlety in their projects,systems and the limitations of the RGB colour system, the A royal standard game changer. These pre-dispersed pigments were much simplerColin says the release of the BS5252 colour chart was anotherthe good colour first, and then the product had to live up tomaking it easier than ever to get just the right white. ReseneRGB colour system portrays some paint colours better than Attheendof1979,ResenereleasedtheBritishStandardto useyou just needed a base and to pour the liquid tinter intosignificant milestone with a whopping 252 hues on offer. However,that colour. Black White, currently Resenes most popular colour, was part ofothers, which is why its always best to view a physical colour Specification 101 Colour Range. As its name suggests, the huesit. Plus, youd have a formula that could be replicated time andthe chart was still just a Resene version of the British system. The realResene also decided to go lead-free at a time when everyonethat initial collection but only reached number 1 status in recentsample before making your final choice.were part of a standard developed in the United Kingdom totime again, so youd never run out of a colour. magic happened when Resene begun creating a system of its own. was still using lead, so we were trying to combat making the sameyears. 1999 saw Resene Managing Director Nick Nightingale identify and code colours for special purposesparticularly forAnother thing that was different was Resenes approach to theThere are only a limited number of colours that can be derivedcalibre of colour in products without lead, which added anotherlaunch what has since become the epitome of colour tools: the building and decorative paints. standard itself. Other companies would just pick which coloursfrom natural sources. Its manmade colours that have expandedlayer of difficulty. There are always challenges to keeping up withaforementioned Resene The Range fashion colours fandeck.38 blackwhitemag.com blackwhitemag.com 39'