Fluorescence

I have always had an affinity for all things bright, shiny or sparkley however today I'd like to take some time to talk about a lifetime love affair with fluorescence. Those colors so bright they don't quite seem real, Pantone 800 somethings that grab you and grab you with light-emitting urgency, time and time again.

I have been developing the website for Architect veterans Studio MORSA, in practice for over 35 years, they are my un-official new italian family. Surprisingly enough they've never had a website (they're just that awesome) which made the project even more exciting. In our initial meeting they presented me with their book, designed by them together with Gonzalo Casals which featured a lovely fluorescent orange cover.


I am no stranger to fluorescent orange inks, in fact I recently used one for artist, and my collaborator Juan Betancurth's business cards, which we hand printed on a goco.


In both of these cases the image on screen doesn't do the printed ink justice. It's just not fluorescent enough, even with tweaks in photoshop, they come out duller than real life. While working on MORSA's website I wanted to incorporate the same neon orange from their book as the highlight color for the link on the site. Try to reduce it to flat color and forget about it. There is no such thing as flourescent orange on the internet.


We Have Hot Pink


We Have electric blue


We have neon green


One very bright yellow


And about the hottest red you can imagine.


But this orange, lovely as it is, pales in comparison of flourescent wonder. Try as I may still can't get it. I did a little bit of research into the subject and found the results to be pleasantly obvious. While a computer sceen is a light emmiting device it does lack one certain thing that those light bright inks have.


MINERALS! Yet another case where mother nature wins, hands down. Lets take a moment to honor the glory of the flourescent minerals we have here on planet earth.


As a side note…Coincidentally, the new issue of one of my favorite magazines, PIN—UP, features a different flourescent ink in each of it's signatures, fucking brilliant, quite literally. Aside for being one of my graphic design crushes, it has content to match. They manage to successfully give you all the fluff and facade you want to be entertained, but balance it out with thought provoking content from very articulate people.