Stepping foot on Westmont High School’s campus on registration day, many students were met with a change in mood upon viewing the newly painted campus. That change in mood was nothing short of a negative one because the school decided to replace its signature colors of red and black to a more monochrome white and grey. Instantly, many students eager to start the 25-26 school year strong were met with utter disbelief at the newly branded yet drab and monotonous colors that now coat Westmont High School in all its entirety. Aside from just schools though, varieties of intricately manmade designs around the world have experienced a visual change in their color schemes that society has more recently begun to catch on. Modern houses, automobiles, and even corporation buildings have noticeably shifted from a once vibrant and exuberant color scheme to now a plain one. To put it bluntly, the world’s designs are indeed losing color. However, the extent to which this prevalent loss of diverse colors in the world really boils down to financial and cultural factors that influence the manufacturing of manmade things—whether it be cars or buildings.
Although cultural factors do play a role in the rapid deterioration of the colors in corporate products around the world, finance and efficiency incentives far surpass those very same cultural influences. McDonalds, arguably the most prominent fast food chain in America, has recently seen progressively blander buildings as opposed to their infrastructure before the 21st century. Previously standing with vibrant colors of red and yellow, McDonalds’ signature color palette, their recent brownish-grey color scheme traces its roots back to monetary advantages in the economy. Paint, like all things, costs hefty amounts of money to buy in bulk and different hues. By effect, many corporations—McDonalds—included would rather allocate their budget on more strategic facets of their monopoly to improve the overall quality of service. Although the disregard of trivial colors compromise the visual and aesthetic appeal of corporate brands on the market, they by effect use the saved money to redistribute their budget on the things that really matter. Taking McDonalds again as an example, they could compensate for their simple designs by investing in the wages of their employees or the sanitation of their facilities. The loss of color in prominent corporations around the world—although questionably harmful to their visual brand—ultimately allows those very same companies to leverage off their monetary circulation to perhaps improve the overall quality of their services, the very things that really matter to consumer experience. Cultural shifts may also play a role in the surge of blander colors in the world, but the financial motives of corporations heavily undermine changes in cultural outlooks of the ideal color palette for consumer appeal.
Going back to Westmont High School, the school’s decision to rebrand the antique campus’s color scheme may have been a scheme broader than that just of aesthetics. By opting for a few simple colors instead of many different ones, Westmont follows the trend that corporations around the world are instilling in their buildings to perhaps invest in the things that really matter. If you notice in the boy’s bathroom, there has been a recent addition of urinal fresheners that have drastically toned down the distinct smells that penetrate the unsuspecting senses of students. Wrapping it up, the authority’s decisions in terms of the world’s color scheme profoundly pave the quality of life, for either cash or color and for better or worse.