If you were planning to ship those green toilet seats to the Middle East, you'd better think again. Green is sacred among Islamic cultures, and those charming seat covers could be deemed sacrilege.
confused? you needn't be.
Companies seeking to market their products abroad can avoid such cultural faux pas with ColorTool, a design program that focuses on color association in different parts of the world. This easy-to-use hypertext source, using case studies and color swatches, allows you to search by color, culture, or overall meaning. The program can save on costly errors by providing design tips that prevent color mismatches and visual no-no's. It also provides interesting information from various color theorists as well as an index of design definitions.
By clicking on countries and colors on the world map interface, you can find that blue is one of the most popular colors among US advertisers and that pink is considered lucky in China. Or you can just have fun playing around.
According to program developer Surya Vanka of the University of Illinois, ColorTool covers 32 cultures and a 12-color spectrum.
##### ColorTool: email*s-vanka1@uiuc.edu.*
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