The Colours Brands Own

Can a company own a colour? In 1985, a US court said yes: Owens Corning won the right to keep its insulation pink, and competitors had to choose something else. Ten years later, the US Supreme Court confirmed that a colour alone can work as a trademark. Since then, brands have fought for blues, oranges, reds and purples. Some won. Some lost. This book tells their stories.

Tiffany Blue: The Box That Speaks First

Tiffany & Co. first used its pale robin's-egg blue on the cover of its Blue Book catalogue in 1845. It became so recognisable that the company registered the colour as a trademark in 1998. Today it's a private custom shade numbered 1837, the year Tiffany was founded. You can't buy it off the shelf. The blue box works before anyone opens it, which is exactly the point.

Hermès Orange: The Colour Nobody Wanted

Hermès boxes were once cream and gold. Then came the Second World War. Rationing in Paris meant the usual cardboard ran out, and the only boxes left were bright orange, a colour nobody wanted. Hermès took them anyway. Almost overnight, orange became the house's signature. Today it's one of the most coveted boxes in fashion: proof that a constraint, held with confidence, can become an identity.

Louboutin Red: From Nail Polish to Court

Hermès boxes were once cream and gold. Then came the Second World War. Rationing in Paris meant the usual cardboard ran out, and the only boxes left were bright orange, a colour nobody wanted. Hermès took them anyway. Almost overnight, orange became the house's signature. Today it's one of the most coveted boxes in fashion: proof that a constraint, held with confidence, can become an identity.

Cadbury Purple: The One That Lost

Not every brand wins. Cadbury applied in 2004 to trademark the purple of its Dairy Milk wrapper, a precise shade, Pantone 2685C. Nestlé objected, and the case dragged on for a decade. In 2013 the Court of Appeal ruled against Cadbury, and in 2014 the Supreme Court refused to hear more. Everyone links that purple to Cadbury; the courts have been far less sure.

UPS Brown: Borrowed from a Train

In 1916, a UPS manager suggested painting the delivery trucks Pullman Brown, the colour of the luxury sleeper carriages on American railways. It looked elegant, and it hid dirt on long routes. The company kept it for over a century, renamed it UPS Brown and registered it as a trademark in 1998. A practical choice became so familiar that the colour itself now says delivery.

Barbie Pink: The World Ran Out

Barbie's pink is so central to the brand that it hardly needs a logo. When the Barbie film was made, the production used so much fluorescent pink paint that its production designer said the world ran out of pink. The paint maker added that supply chain problems played a part too. Either way, a toy's colour became the look of a whole summer in 2023.

Bottega Green: The Logo That Isn't There

Bottega Veneta has long sold its bags without a visible logo, relying on its woven leather instead. In 2019, creative director Daniel Lee introduced a vivid kelly green, now known simply as Bottega Green. It spread across bags, shoes and campaigns, and soon people recognised the brand from across a room. When you remove the logo, the colour has to do the talking. Here, it does.

Coca-Cola Red: The Santa Myth

A famous myth says Coca-Cola dressed Santa in red. It didn't. Santa appeared in red long before the company's well-known 1931 Christmas ads, in nineteenth-century prints and 1920s magazine art. What Coca-Cola did was repeat its red Santa every winter for decades, until the two became inseparable. That's the real lesson: you don't have to invent a colour to own it. You have to repeat it.

The Blackest Black and the Pinkest Pink

In 2016, the artist Anish Kapoor secured exclusive artistic rights to Vantablack, one of the darkest materials ever made. Many artists were outraged. One of them, Stuart Semple, answered by releasing the "world's pinkest pink" and selling it to everyone except Kapoor. Kapoor replied with a photo of his middle finger dipped in it. Owning a colour, it turns out, can start a war.

Why Most Colours Can't Be Owned

Many colour claims fail, for two reasons. First, a colour that does a job can't be owned: courts refused pink for wound dressings and orange and yellow for public phones because the colours were practical, not branding. Second, people must already link the colour to one company, which usually takes decades. That's why the winners are old brands that repeated one colour patiently, long before any lawyer was involved.

How to Own a Colour

You don't need a court to own a colour. You need a decision and the patience to keep it. Choose one shade that fits your story, not the trend. Use it everywhere: packaging, website, photography, even the tissue paper. Then don't change it when you get bored. Recognition comes from repetition. The colours in this book were ordinary once, until someone refused to switch. Ready to find your colour? Let's talk →