Color-ville 77

 "the renegade paint company" Remodelista

 Through founder and Creative Director Simon March's interest in art, architecture and popular culture an alternative PATH has been found, turning COLORVILLE into a well-respected creator of distinctive paint collections to be used in'anti zeitgeist interiors' for individuals who want to buck predictable trends.

The Colors are defined by colorvilles juxtaposing the odd and unconventional  with an emphasis on individuality. The signature colors create a symphony of tones that  resonate  leaving a cultural trace that seems firmly set in the future yet may they may seem nostalgic but as in 1977 we were not rushing to the future, we were already there.

The collections include the PAINT, the world famous COLOR CARDS (as seen in the V&A reference library)

(and because the colors are characters in their own right) 

“fine works of paint” screen printed in limited runs, with our paint colors, which are hung in homes all over the world.

all hanging under the ironic conceit   "this is paint not art".

Colorville’s paint evolution  started over over 30 years ago in NYC painting Beach houses on long island and then having 3 stores in London including in LIBERTYs of London then Lewes and now Hastings and St Leonards where we are still making paint for commercial interiors, movies ,homes  and just about any odd ball that doesn’t want to be “influenced’.This journey has culminated in its most recent iteration...COLORVILLE 77

COLORVILLE 77 is a  kind of chromatic historical almanac of ,curated colors that tells a story in time .

we can can tell you about each color  where it comes from and why its important interesting or funny, they are  resonant to us like notes in a tune .

The color may come form the back drop of an episode of the pink panther show or  A peanuts holiday special, inside an album sleeve, a paper bag he once was given in C&A, the dust cover of an academic book, or an  Open university science program.....

 Of course you won't want to use them all but they are all designed to look wonderful in groupings.  which is of course is how they were spotted in the first place. no color is seen in isolation.

Colorville has been quietly running their little color revolution for  years, fighting for your right to  choose the colors you instinctively like, rather than those dictated to you by institutionalised ‘good taste’.

We despise good taste.

We delight in challenging the tyranny of interiors magazines and the advice of real estate agents and moreover influencers, of course we are aware of the paradox that we would like to influence you in to not be influenced.

Our approach is broadly this.:  If you are captivated by a car parked in front of a shop front or garage door and the two colors feel extremely satisfying then this is a great way to make a choice.

  Our colors do indeed tell a story they are a culmination of  Simon's journey of a man in search of himself….just kidding ( this does however make a point that there is a lot of dogmatic bullshit pontificated  when people start spouting  about colors and  how we should use them).

We very often come across some doubtful  hyperbole, a “purple passage” about how ones dear nanny’ had a primrose pinafore and how it would catch ones eye when juxtaposed with the puce blanket  that one remembers vividly before one was one, and how one simply has adored this color combination ever since and even more so when nanny read Nana, by  émile Zola describing a woman "dressed in a dark gown of an equivocal color, somewhere between puce and goose shit…..it stuck with me. .... and this is why I have dedicated my life to helping my friends choose cushions and scented candles with my " unctuous extraordinary" colors , in my dear little store in Battersea.

However, the provenance of our colors comes from  Simons formative years growing up in  a period we now term with broad accuracy  midcentury. ( it was actually the late 70s early 80s) 

Collecting  colors seems like a vague pursuit. it is, but never the less thats what we do.

His era was the advent of ‘color freedom’ rebellion and joy in homes and in fashion it was the future and still is in many ways,  it included everything but it was the little color groupings that seem to tell the stories…… beige brown purple and orange  egg yolk yellow and emerald green and mauve and black.  All evocative as groupings but not so when they are solo. like all  ingredients they  make for something bigger than the sum of their parts.

This was exemplified by what really captured his imagination the pictures in cookbooks  (  very often only a few as most were just the writing)fondue manuals, magazines, packaging cartoons and particularly UPA Mr Magoo colombo Pink Panther and the inspector, these combinantion were captivating judicious and sparing just the right amount of this and that.  And  whilst never stopping watching cartoons he moved on to love the art directed colors of film the harry palmer movies, colombo rainy scenes of Paris with brightly colored citroens and Renaults piercing the grey boulevards

Mean streets NYC ……these are the colors in my head and I like them for being colors not for the home they are in i.e someone else’s set up with a lamp and a sleeping dog in front of a neat row of shaker pegs hanging wax jackets and tweed caps.

Brigitte Bardot and Liza Minelli Harry Palmer and Alan Delon and Jim rockford is where I saw my colors….. on ash trays, dresses watch straps and toasters. Le parapluis de cherborg and harold and maud.

With no talent and a simple love of 'color unions' he developed a love of Blinky Palermo, abstract expressionism precisionism Tin Tin and UPA.  I could do that “ no he couldn’t but he could make the paint and maybe sell it. And here we are……..

every single tv ram i never stop looking at the color compisition the ratios of the red and that green and the grey.. im not thinkng what color looks good but what colors look good together and then where i might put them ....