shiny

March 10, 2017 11:06 PM

Design's Iridescence Craze "Rainbow hues, color-changing films, and iridescent glazes have been steadily coating the design world for years."
posted by dhruva (20 comments total)

Oooo those rainbow windows!

I do think this article does a disservice by not mentioning how it seems to go hand in hand with rainbow/iridescent/holo/duochrome in fashion and beauty. Perhaps it's just what sources I view but I feel like it's been crazy popular in fashion and beauty and then is catching on in design? Again, I'm looking at the pure retail end of it. Maybe it's also due to the cost of making/selling a rainbow sheen coat versus a rainbow glass wall.

I do appreciate that they don't call it Holographic, though I wish they also would have mentioned holo vs iridescent since so.many.things are called holographic when they are iridescent or color shifting. (Any holosexuals out there?)

I'm definitely excited and hope that things like this become more accessible because I love unique and colorful things.
posted by Crystalinne at 11:49 PM on March 10, 2017 [8 favorites]

Like all Pop Art, it's whatever new process your manufacturers can industrialize being the one to catch the designer's eye. At the end of my time in pre-press, I worked in a shop with a huge six-colour press. One of the last jobs I saw was an impossibly luxe poster for a cigarette-sponsored club event (showing my age) that had a beautiful selective UV/iridescent gold mica lacquer print layer. Shame it was only the tobacco companies who had the cash to splash on that fifteen years ago.

Does this mean that rainbow titanium is cool again?
posted by scruss at 7:17 AM on March 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

Rainbow titanium never stopped being cool!

I love all of this. I want to cover my body in that 3M iridescent film. BRING IT, BRING ON THE RAINBOWS.
posted by fiercecupcake at 8:36 AM on March 11, 2017 [10 favorites]

I actually noticed this at Small Press Expo last fall. I always get a ton of prints and posters there, and there are always a few prevailing trends-- this year, it was gold foil details, holographic paper, and other shiny things.
posted by nonasuch at 8:40 AM on March 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

God I just spent 45 minutes sucked into Nailolological's YouTube channels and it's not even related to the FPP. Going into the MakeUp Tutorial section of YouTube is always a flipping trip.

Anyways... this iridescence in architecture reminds of visiting Central Ohio Science and Industry museum as a kid. It's a weirdly specific aesthetic. Thanks for the post.

Back to YouTube I guess.
posted by midmarch snowman at 8:56 AM on March 11, 2017

Certain iridescence, such as butterfly wings, is also known as structural color
posted by bz at 9:35 AM on March 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Here's an article talking about non-iridescent structural colour, inspired by a blue tarantula's hair
posted by dhruva at 10:19 AM on March 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

oooooh when are they going to make a hair dye that does this. I want my hair to shine in all the colours
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 12:22 PM on March 11, 2017

Unfortunately because the light disruption effect that causes iridescence happens as a result of a physical structure, you will never be able to get it in a dye. Dyes don't work like that. Pigment or film only, I'm afraid.
posted by KathrynT at 2:01 PM on March 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

This 80's child heartily approves of the shiny.
posted by The otter lady at 2:18 PM on March 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, those pre-Reformation church decorators knew what they were about. Discovering new colours - and new intensities of colours - was and is such an intensely satisfying thing for me. Childhood was full of natural hues, but finding the glorious purities of certain minerals really got me. And when we got a colour TV, that was special - but my first colour home computer? Just setting the screen to saturated green, or red, or blue, so much more stable and solid than broadcast pictures... and then in the late 80s, getting my first decent colour monitor and Amiga and Deluxe Paint with its palette tricks, just as the whole acid house thing was flooding the rest of my world with all those fluorescent rainbows.

The more wild iridescence there is in my world, the happier I am. It annoys me that I've seen all the colours, and pleases me that perhaps I have not. Taste shall have no dominion over me!
posted by Devonian at 4:45 PM on March 11, 2017 [4 favorites]

"Iridescent" is my aesthetic forever. More of it, please!

Like, maybe it's a trend because it's joyful and delightful and it's beautiful.

(I don't have good photos of it right now to share but still my favorite craft project was when I broke up a bunch of CDs I had acquired from being a music reviewer & used them as "tiles" on a small table, mosaic style. Lots of people have asked what I used and were always amazed when I told them. So many shiny rainbows!)
posted by darksong at 6:36 PM on March 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

So, I own these iridescent hollow platforms and because I love the reflective top, I haven't put anything in the sole yet.

Seriously, what goes there? I said "glitter" and my husband said "no no, glitter is always the final solution... once it goes in there, you'll never get it out."

help
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 3:27 PM on March 12, 2017

Dyes don't work like that

I know, but a girl can dream, can't she?
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 3:45 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

Unicorn, just do it, commit to holo glitter. Bar holo glitter would be amazing.
posted by fiercecupcake at 3:54 PM on March 12, 2017 [1 favorite]

Ooh also there are such things as gloss and pigment hair treatments; I feel like you could have an iridescent treatment that would work on dark hair. It would probably ruin your hair, though.
posted by fiercecupcake at 3:55 PM on March 12, 2017

Unicorn, I think what you want to do there is get some iridescent plastic film and crumple it up to stuff in the soles. One color or two? Crumpled loosely or tightly? Leave the film intact, or shred it? THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS
posted by KathrynT at 10:16 PM on March 12, 2017 [2 favorites]

I would fill those shoes with confetti.
posted by Crystalinne at 12:35 AM on March 13, 2017 [1 favorite]

I thought the "oil slick" dye style was intended to give the illusion of translucence on dark hair.
posted by Selena777 at 11:22 AM on March 13, 2017

WOW Selena777, I had seen that but didn't know what it was called, and now I can actually see a ton of pix, it's amazing. Love it.
posted by fiercecupcake at 12:36 PM on March 13, 2017