Between incorporating their color library into Autodesk’s Sketchbook Pro and providing drool-worthy retail displays, Copic is stepping up their marker game even further with the upcoming release of 288 color chips. Featuring matte or gloss on curved and flat surfaces, the new chips will be highly-beneficial for better envisioning your product before you even put the ink to the paper.

Communicating Accurate Surface Color

Specifically made for plastic-based product designs, the soon-to-be-released 288 piece color chip system from Copic was designed to help provide more accurate color communication between designers and manufacturers. While the new chips will prove to be beneficial for professional designers, perhaps they also highlight the new ‘grey area’ between non-professionally trained designers and manufacturers.

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Today, even one or two-man design houses currently have their own CMF (Color, Material, and Finish) reference library (even if it’s just a loose binder), however the majority of the content within most CMF libraries are oftentimes industry-specific and only accessible through professional industry contacts and trade shows. Whether car paint, footwear components, or general finishes, material and color samples generally don’t exist in the consumer market outside of the house paint section at Home Depot. This smart move by Copic will allow designers at the consumer level to better communicate their concepts to those who make their final product, while also giving professional designers an added tool to have accurate color throughout their entire design process:

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While the official release date is yet to be known, Copic has a notification sign-up for when the chips are released.

Author

Simon is a Brooklyn-based industrial designer and Managing Editor of EVD Media. When he finds the time to design, his focus is on helping startups develop branding and design solutions to realize their product design vision. In addition to his work at Nike and various other clients, he is the main reason anything gets done at EvD Media. He once wrestled an Alaskan alligator buzzard to the ground with his bare hands… to rescue Josh.