128 Colors
A Sample Book for Architects, Conservators and Designers

An instrument for the selection of color—

Dealing with colour is a complex subject: influenced by standards, fashions, and trends, we derive our ideas and concepts from colour theories, intuition, and personal preferences. The colour swatches and systems for describing color common today are based on purely quantitative principles and include well over 1,500 colours. So how do we choose a particular color?

More than ten years ago, the colour chemist Katrin Trautwein established a pigment factory, starting out from Le Corbusier’s colour palette. She now has more than 900 recipes for paint from which she has proposed – based on her work with architects, designers, and historical preservationists – a selection of 128 colours that produce pleasant results on their own and also combine well. Each colour is presented with a sample; their potential uses and significance are also discussed.

Katrin Trautwein has lectured throughout the world on how to approach colours, given seminars, given expert opinions, advised architects, taught painters, and worked as a restorer.

—A tool of the trade in a user-friendly design with a spiral binding and a hard cover
—With information on the origins of the paints and pigments used
—With approximations for the colour description systems commonly used today, such as CMYK and RGB