Our company provided technical and substantive support to the RGB Regional Colour Group Project implemented by the Tres Foundation. The goal of this initiative is to document, archive and share unique phenomena in the field of folk colour terminology used in folk costumes of several regions of Central Poland (including Opoczno, Rawa, Łowicz).

By measuring individual colours with a spectrophotometer, we helped translate the colours into laboratory language and thus into Pantone and RGB. Colours have gone from natural to chemical dyeing.

The rural colour palette and names assigned to them, for example in Opoczno dialect: “wiatrowy” (very dark saturated pink), “ponsowy,” (dark red) “ogniowy” (dark red), “koco” (very dark saturated green), “lekstrycno” (very dark blue), in the Rawa dialect: “modry” (very dark /mostly black/ blue), “kapuściany” (very dark cyan -lime green), “zgniły” (very dark green), “olejowy” (very dark yellow /olive tone/), “wściekły” (very dark blue), “bledziutki” (strong blue), in the Łowicz dialect: “gonsiockowy” (moderate yellow), “mechowiutki” (very dark green), “dubeltowy” (vivid orange), “niebowy” (dark cyan), “besowiutki” (mostly desaturated dark magenta), “ceglaty” (moderate red), “sannicki” (dark red) were akin to contemporary color models such as Pantone, CMYK, HSB, or RGB.

These names and associated colours represent a unique intangible heritage of Central Poland, which is fading before our eyes. This is the last moment to capture this colour treasure. Traditional and beautiful regional colour palettes can now be accurately utilized by modern technology. We are delighted to have participated in such an intriguing initiative, and for those interested, please visit the website

http://regionalnagrupabarw.pl/