Love this, Beth! I remember well when the walls of the local hospital were still painted this very distint color (90's); as was the state mental hospital (70's). All schools used a variation of this color; and when I began teaching children with severe learning differences-most also diagnosed with ADHD-in the early 80's, my principal had read that we should paint the room pink! (Perhaps Baker-Miller Pink?)
I then began to notice that if I used colored overlays on reading material, it helped many children with visual discrimination. That led to using colored overlays on the florescent lights, which was indeed calming. You've reached a wide audience again -all with different experiences and memories regarding color!
Your comment about its use in schools reminds me of Waldorf approach, which has soft lighting and a specific colour (usually warm) for each classroom (I believe kindergarten is generally pink, for instance), along with a heavy use of natural materials such as wood, and plant fibre, silk or wool textiles.
Seafoam green being my most favorite color of colors, I immediately clicked to read this fascinating story.
I wonder how deeply or if the mid-century's obsession with this shade of green in EVERYTHING is connected to that guy's color theory work? Or was his work, rather, influenced by the cultural obsession? Which came first?
Debbie.. I’ve wondered the exact same thing and feel like I might turn into a mad woman if I let myself go too deep! The Soviet Union had their own Seafoam green in an earlier timeline and so did the Germans. So condensing these questions down into “ok, but this guy standardized it and gave a reason for the color” is something I’ll just have to accept for now, lol. Thank you for being curious, too!
Guitars are no exception. Seafoam green / Fender / Stratocaster is a legendary combination from the mid 1960s -- now, this may have to do w/ Southern California and beaches...
Yo this is the most interesting post on color I’ve ever read! Was just rewatching The Wire and noticed the interrogation rooms at the police station were tiled to the ceiling in seafoam green and thought to myself… what a whimsical choice. Now I see it’s just practical. Thank you, your Substack is excellent! 👏
Really interesting, thank you. It's also a set of colours used by the Royal Navy - they used a light green for ships in the 1940s, as part of their camouflage schemes but also inside ships. I suspect lots of things painted those green colours here in the UK were just using up war-surplus paint.
So interesting! I read that DuPont, who built these buildings and supplied the US military supplies, also worked with the Royal Air Force. Perhaps it’s all connected!
This made me remember the mystery crime classic, Green for Danger by Christianna Brand, published 1944. The color green used used in a special way in a military hospital in Kent [UK] during the bombing raids during WWII - it is worked into the plot.
Thank you for sharing this delightful rabbit hole! The prescribed colour applications made me think of Severance's production design, which makes perfect sense heh
This article brings me right back to my first engineering job at Boeing in the early 1980s. Our metal desks were painted in the light and medium greens of the Birren/Dupont color chart.
I always assumed the desks were surplus WWII furniture. They were built like tanks - and had every bit as much of their visual appeal.
Also, two other types of control rooms come to my (spaceflight obsessed) mind … launch control and mission control rooms. Much of the equipment I’ve seen in those facilities were painted “sea foam green”.
One exception may be inside some of the blockhouses of early NASA launch sites, such as LC-34 & 37. I got to tour the inside of the LC-37 blockhouse when I was a teenager. My photos were taken in 1975 and have color shifted over the years. But, if my color correction is correct, the equipment in the blockhouses may have been painted in a dark gray. Maybe they were going for a different energy for the launch control room personnel. It is rocket science, after all.
You can judge for yourself … My article about my trip to the Kennedy Space Center in 1975, including the blockhouse photos, can be found here:
Sure, that is a post 2000 version of the standard, but I’ll bet it follows an earlier one from the 70s.
There is a seafoam green color used for 19” equipment racks (oddly, I’ve heard it called NASA blue) - mostly you see it on racks from the 1950s and 1960s which are gradually being replaced as new equipment is built (which is gray).
Very interesting, Jim. Thanks for the information. (Oddly enough, your comment in Substack has been given a Sea Foam green background!)
After reading your comment, and the linked NASA Technical Standard document, my curiosity was piqued and I decided to double-check my recollections of some of the other NASA control equipment I've seen. Turns out there is quite a variety of colors.
The Explorer 1 launch control blockhouse has what appears to be light gray consoles, though I had recalled (possibly incorrectly) them being Sea Foam green. There is a strong green light cast from the thick glass observation windows. That green cast was likely coloring my memories.
Green feels safe and comforting because human eyesight is tuned such that green is at the center of our visual spectrum. Our eyes and visual cortex need make no adjustments for brightness as they would for the reds and violets at the lower and upper ends of the spectrum. Green doesn’t just feel easier to see, it is easier to see.
This is fascinating. I find that while I like seafoam green in theory and on objects like books and clothing, when I see it on walls I have a slight negative association. I think because to me it feels "industrial" and "institutional". So paradoxically because it has been so widely used in these contexts, it now evokes the context. My dad painted the upstairs hall in my parents' house a seafoam green and I didn't like it. And I think this explains why. It made the hall feel too much like a school or hospital or factory and that's not the feeling you want to invoke in a home. Especially when paired with the fluorescent light he installed to make it feel brighter. The only thing that rescued the hall was the dark wood floor and dark wood doors which did help to ground it a bit.
In my own home I've preferred light blue or robin's egg blue for the bedrooms and a soft yellow for the living room and kitchen. But I note that both of those shades (light blue and soft yellow) are on the left side of the Faber Birren color cards and the medium blue is fairly close to my robin's egg.
I never knew it was a system! School walls in the 50s and 60s were often this shade, and I remember a lot of industrial equipment in light green. For instance, the Ludlow semi-auto typesetter:
I worked as a Certified Operator at Hanford's N Reactor, so I'm very familiar with this color scheme. However, we were told it was called "eye-easy green," supposedly based on a military spec.
Love this, Beth! I remember well when the walls of the local hospital were still painted this very distint color (90's); as was the state mental hospital (70's). All schools used a variation of this color; and when I began teaching children with severe learning differences-most also diagnosed with ADHD-in the early 80's, my principal had read that we should paint the room pink! (Perhaps Baker-Miller Pink?)
I then began to notice that if I used colored overlays on reading material, it helped many children with visual discrimination. That led to using colored overlays on the florescent lights, which was indeed calming. You've reached a wide audience again -all with different experiences and memories regarding color!
That’s so interesting! Loved reading about using colored overlays on reading material!
Your comment about its use in schools reminds me of Waldorf approach, which has soft lighting and a specific colour (usually warm) for each classroom (I believe kindergarten is generally pink, for instance), along with a heavy use of natural materials such as wood, and plant fibre, silk or wool textiles.
It's not called "institutional green" without reason
Seafoam green being my most favorite color of colors, I immediately clicked to read this fascinating story.
I wonder how deeply or if the mid-century's obsession with this shade of green in EVERYTHING is connected to that guy's color theory work? Or was his work, rather, influenced by the cultural obsession? Which came first?
Thank you, Beth!
Debbie.. I’ve wondered the exact same thing and feel like I might turn into a mad woman if I let myself go too deep! The Soviet Union had their own Seafoam green in an earlier timeline and so did the Germans. So condensing these questions down into “ok, but this guy standardized it and gave a reason for the color” is something I’ll just have to accept for now, lol. Thank you for being curious, too!
Soviet fighter cockpit interior
http://www.flankers-site.co.uk/misc_pics/green_mig-23-01.jpg
Rad
Guitars are no exception. Seafoam green / Fender / Stratocaster is a legendary combination from the mid 1960s -- now, this may have to do w/ Southern California and beaches...
There are many versions of "seafoam green" - some are lovely, others are hideous
Yo this is the most interesting post on color I’ve ever read! Was just rewatching The Wire and noticed the interrogation rooms at the police station were tiled to the ceiling in seafoam green and thought to myself… what a whimsical choice. Now I see it’s just practical. Thank you, your Substack is excellent! 👏
Wow, great eye for noticing that in The Wire! Thank you for reading!
Ugh I love color theory and cool stories like this! Thank you for sharing and doing the research, such a fun read for us design nerds.
It reminded me of a sidenote made by a professor of mine when he told us the reasoning behind why surgical scrubs are green; it's stuck with me all these years later. Here's an article that sums it all up well: https://medicuscaps.com/blogs/scrub-caps-news/the-science-behind-green-surgical-scrubs?srsltid=AfmBOooPVk_WUB9FHipQbvvgMuDdM7v8eUZozgNog4APPZVJ1aVE8ubq
Wow, amazing! Another good rabbit hole to go down. :) Thank you for sharing!
That's fascinating and makes perfect sense.
Really interesting, thank you. It's also a set of colours used by the Royal Navy - they used a light green for ships in the 1940s, as part of their camouflage schemes but also inside ships. I suspect lots of things painted those green colours here in the UK were just using up war-surplus paint.
So interesting! I read that DuPont, who built these buildings and supplied the US military supplies, also worked with the Royal Air Force. Perhaps it’s all connected!
This made me remember the mystery crime classic, Green for Danger by Christianna Brand, published 1944. The color green used used in a special way in a military hospital in Kent [UK] during the bombing raids during WWII - it is worked into the plot.
Thank you for sharing this delightful rabbit hole! The prescribed colour applications made me think of Severance's production design, which makes perfect sense heh
Oh you’re right!! That green room 😍
I realise this is a coincidence and irrelevant, but Faber is so nearly Farbe, German for colour.
Immediate follow. I LOVED this!!! Also as a Nashville resident, I want a list of all the places you “field tripped” please and thank youuuuu
When you write the cologne bridge green story you may be interested to know that one of the stationery shops in Koln sells an ink of that same colour
This article brings me right back to my first engineering job at Boeing in the early 1980s. Our metal desks were painted in the light and medium greens of the Birren/Dupont color chart.
I always assumed the desks were surplus WWII furniture. They were built like tanks - and had every bit as much of their visual appeal.
Also, two other types of control rooms come to my (spaceflight obsessed) mind … launch control and mission control rooms. Much of the equipment I’ve seen in those facilities were painted “sea foam green”.
One exception may be inside some of the blockhouses of early NASA launch sites, such as LC-34 & 37. I got to tour the inside of the LC-37 blockhouse when I was a teenager. My photos were taken in 1975 and have color shifted over the years. But, if my color correction is correct, the equipment in the blockhouses may have been painted in a dark gray. Maybe they were going for a different energy for the launch control room personnel. It is rocket science, after all.
You can judge for yourself … My article about my trip to the Kennedy Space Center in 1975, including the blockhouse photos, can be found here:
https://www.creating-space.art/p/kennedy-space-center-1975
Yes, gray, because NASA Ground Support Equipment (GSE) is painted with color in accordance with FED-STD-595 as color chip #26440 or #26251. (see section 4.3.2.4 of https://standards.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/standards/NASA/D-w/CHANGE-1/1/Historical/nasa-std-5005b.pdf)
Sure, that is a post 2000 version of the standard, but I’ll bet it follows an earlier one from the 70s.
There is a seafoam green color used for 19” equipment racks (oddly, I’ve heard it called NASA blue) - mostly you see it on racks from the 1950s and 1960s which are gradually being replaced as new equipment is built (which is gray).
Very interesting, Jim. Thanks for the information. (Oddly enough, your comment in Substack has been given a Sea Foam green background!)
After reading your comment, and the linked NASA Technical Standard document, my curiosity was piqued and I decided to double-check my recollections of some of the other NASA control equipment I've seen. Turns out there is quite a variety of colors.
The Explorer 1 launch control blockhouse has what appears to be light gray consoles, though I had recalled (possibly incorrectly) them being Sea Foam green. There is a strong green light cast from the thick glass observation windows. That green cast was likely coloring my memories.
https://ccspacemuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/displays/LC26blockhouse/IMG_2565.jpg
There are a number of consoles preserved at the American Space Museum in Titusville, Florida. Some appear light gray ...
https://spacewalkoffame.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/20140618_183536-1024x572.jpg
... or blue/green ...
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/06/04/bd/b3/us-space-walk-of-fame.jpg
... some Sea Foam green ...
https://spacecoastliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/JBP_9474med-1200.jpg
... and some blue ...
https://spacecoastliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/JBP_9560med-400.jpg
The historic Apollo Mission Control Room at Johnson Space Center is filled with consoles that look to be Sea Foam green.
https://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/5d3201e9ee34330008b95707/16:9/w_2560%2Cc_limit/1%252048138678648_170f4fea6b_o.jpg
Much later, JSC upgraded to new computers and free-standing monitors. The workstation surrounds were a dark blue.
https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/fc80e8c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1200x798+0+0/resize/880x585!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F12%2Fjsc2011e045475orig.jpg
https://alianza.bunam.unam.mx/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/640px-Mission_control_center.jpg
Green feels safe and comforting because human eyesight is tuned such that green is at the center of our visual spectrum. Our eyes and visual cortex need make no adjustments for brightness as they would for the reds and violets at the lower and upper ends of the spectrum. Green doesn’t just feel easier to see, it is easier to see.
This is fascinating. I find that while I like seafoam green in theory and on objects like books and clothing, when I see it on walls I have a slight negative association. I think because to me it feels "industrial" and "institutional". So paradoxically because it has been so widely used in these contexts, it now evokes the context. My dad painted the upstairs hall in my parents' house a seafoam green and I didn't like it. And I think this explains why. It made the hall feel too much like a school or hospital or factory and that's not the feeling you want to invoke in a home. Especially when paired with the fluorescent light he installed to make it feel brighter. The only thing that rescued the hall was the dark wood floor and dark wood doors which did help to ground it a bit.
In my own home I've preferred light blue or robin's egg blue for the bedrooms and a soft yellow for the living room and kitchen. But I note that both of those shades (light blue and soft yellow) are on the left side of the Faber Birren color cards and the medium blue is fairly close to my robin's egg.
Looking forward to reading this. All my cells get dizzy from bliss whenever I see seafoam green control rooms. Especially from the Soviet Era.
This is my absolute favorite kind of rabbit hole!!! The first thing I did when I bought a 1960s house was to paint two of the rooms this color!!
I never knew it was a system! School walls in the 50s and 60s were often this shade, and I remember a lot of industrial equipment in light green. For instance, the Ludlow semi-auto typesetter:
https://polistrasmill.com/2023/11/07/electrotyping-part-2-of-3/
I worked as a Certified Operator at Hanford's N Reactor, so I'm very familiar with this color scheme. However, we were told it was called "eye-easy green," supposedly based on a military spec.
Good article, thanks! --David Carson