Pantone Book Covers

[Prof. Amy Lupin]

The publishing house Puffin recently collaborated with Pantone, an organisation that oversees colour standards, to create a set of new covers for much-loved children's books. These covers "reflect the stories within" by highlighting key aspects, such as the purple mountains featured in Heidi, or the iconic yellow brick road from The Wizard of Oz.

This raises an interesting question... which colour would you associate with your favourite book as a child? Or even your favourite book as an adult?

[Prof. Sky Alton]

Oooh, interesting idea. I guess my associations of colour are a little strange because I have synaesthesia (where sounds, words, letters and concepts are colours in my head). So my colour-book combinations tend to take into account the colours of the letters in the title, words I'm hearing or the voice on the audio book. For instance, The Old Kingdom books by Garth Nix are sort of a rich, golden brown because of Tim Curry's voice on the audio book. If I were just thinking about the book, they should be blue and silver because of the traditional colours of the protagonist's house.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Oooh, interesting idea. I guess my associations of colour are a little strange because I have synaesthesia (where sounds, words, letters and concepts are colours in my head). So my colour-book combinations tend to take into account the colours of the letters in the title, words I'm hearing or the voice on the audio book. For instance, The Old Kingdom books by Garth Nix are sort of a rich, golden brown because of Tim Curry's voice on the audio book. If I were just thinking about the book, they should be blue and silver because of the traditional colours of the protagonist's house.

I thought that was a natural thing, Sky (the synaesthesia). (In other words, I do that and thought everyone did until I just read what you wrote. Never thought about it! Ha.) Maybe it's like how folks for the longest time couldn't see the colour blue (according to scientists) and it was a gradually developed thing until almost everyone does? So sooner or later the species as a whole will have a wider palate of sensation?

Anyway, back to Amy's question -- Neverwhere has lots of shadows, but with bright splashes of alive colours, which are richer than what is found in London Above. It's like the whole colour palette is present in London Above but sort of muted, even if they 'look' bright, the aliveness is not present. Whereas in London Below, there are a lot more shadows and browns and blacks and greys but when colour does show up, it has a depth of aliveness to it. Actually, even the shadows and browns and black and greys of London Below have more aliveness, more presence to them, than London Above.

[Prof. Sky Alton]

I thought that was a natural thing, Sky (the synaesthesia). (In other words, I do that and thought everyone did until I just read what you wrote. Never thought about it! Ha.) Maybe it's like how folks for the longest time couldn't see the colour blue (according to scientists) and it was a gradually developed thing until almost everyone does? So sooner or later the species as a whole will have a wider palate of sensation?

That's exactly how I found out about mine as well, Tarma! My friend was all excited by it and describing it to me (because a character in an Anime had it and she thought it was super cool). I just sat there and stared at her and eventually said 'Normal people don't think like that?'. It was a revelation. Welcome to the club- only one in 20000 people have it (though I'm beginning to doubt that as I know at least 5 synaesthetes). I think you may have a point and it's a lot more common than people realise, it could well be on the rise.

[Bull J. Johnson]

Well one of my favorite books as a adult would be Hunger Games Series and I'd say red would be its color. Red would be for the fire both for the girl who is on fire and because how the girl on fire fights. Red just seems like a strength color on her.