Axis magazine: "COLOR LIES AT THE HEART OF DESIGN PHILOSOPHY"

The "COLOR COMPENDIUM" is a recent absolutly stunning book by the Japanese graphic designer  Kunihiko Sugiyama.  And we are so proud that Kolormondo is part of the book.

Here is a translation of an article from the web magazine Axis 20260612:

When we try to learn about color, we first rely on words. What is red? What is blue? What are complementary colors, primary colors, and harmony? However, color is difficult to grasp through words alone. Rather, it is only when there is a diagram before us, with the colors placed within it, that we truly understand.

Graphic designer Kunihiko Sugiyama has long grappled with the act of "seeing color." He is a designer who has continuously considered, not as an abstract theory of color, how it is reproduced on paper, how colors on a monitor differ from printed colors, and how illustrations should be arranged and presented to the reader, all from a practical, real-world perspective. Simultaneously, in recent years, he has pursued independent research and publishing activities on the themes of color history, visual culture history, and the history of rainbow research. In 2013, he published *Illustrated Cultural History of Rainbows* (Kawade Shobo Shinsha), tracing the history of rainbow research from Aristotle to Newton, Goethe, and modern physics, accompanied by illustrations.

Kunihiko Sugiyama has worked in publishing, commercial design, CI, and editorial design, and since 1984, he has been an early adopter of digital design and color management. Currently, he focuses on planning and designing promotional materials for special printing and digital printing presses. Alongside this, since 2004, he has continued independent research and publishing activities on the themes of color history and the history of rainbow research.

Sugiyama's latest work is "COLOR COMPENDIUM." From ancient times to the present, how have people observed, organized, and attempted to understand color? This large-format book traces that history not only through text, but also through a series of color diagrams, color models, and illustrations.

The open pages feature color wheels, color solids, and color charts. The index of "primary colors" printed on the edges of the pages is a result of comparing the different concepts of primary colors across different eras and fields. The design allows readers to trace the evolution of color thought not only by reading the main text, but also by glancing at the edges of the pages.

280 x 290 mm, 190 pages. Limited print run of 100 copies. Not intended for domestic distribution, but produced entirely in English with the aim of dialogue with color researchers in Germany and Switzerland. This book won the Red Dot Award in the Publishing & Print Media category for Brands & Communication Design 2025. However, for Sugiyama, this book wasn't created to win an award. This book was born from a long-standing feeling of unease: "It's a book about color, but the crucial colors aren't visible."

"I really want to talk about color while actually seeing them. There's this idea in Japanese color books that it's okay to talk about color without color charts because the text explains it. But I wondered why we couldn't reproduce that, given that we have top-level printing technology."

Originally, the starting point for 'COLOR COMPENDIUM' wasn't a research book, but a printing sample. It was planned for drupa, the international printing equipment trade fair scheduled to be held in Germany in 2020, to demonstrate the performance of Ricoh's high-speed continuous-paper inkjet printer, "RICOH Pro VC70000." Initially, it was supposed to be a sample book without explanatory text, beautifully printing historical color illustrations to show the color reproduction capabilities of the paper and printing press.

However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, drupa 2020 was held online, and the physical exhibition was postponed until 2024. As a result, Sugiyama had approximately four years to work on the project. That time significantly changed the nature of the project. What began as a simple print sample evolved into a full-fledged book tracing the history of color theory through illustrations.

What concerned Sugiyama was the treatment of historical color illustrations. Many books introducing past color theories feature illustrations in monochrome or use faded materials. Of course, faithfully reproducing the current state of old materials is important. However, if illustrations used to understand color lose their color, the original author's vision becomes difficult to discern.

During the interview, Sugiyama specifically discussed the differences in color reproduction caused by different printing methods, such as regular black, rich black, and multi-color printing including fluorescent colors. His practical understanding of the characteristics of paper, ink, and printers, in addition to the restoration of historical illustrations, underpins the book's vibrant colors.

"Even illustrations where the colors are difficult to imagine are often included as they are because they are historical materials. But that misses the essence. I wanted to restore the images that people in the past had in their minds as much as possible using current technology."

Sugiyama didn't simply enhance the illustrations for aesthetic reasons. He added color to the monochrome prints, refined lines obscured by fading and stains, and retyped illegible text. Instead of merely preserving historical materials, he aimed to bring the original ideas and structures conveyed by the illustrations closer to being visible again. This reflects a combination of a designer's eye, an editor's perseverance, and the judgment of someone knowledgeable about printing.

This is also why this book is not a "book explaining the history of color in text," but rather a "book tracing the lineage of color diagrams."

Indeed, color theory has always been accompanied by diagrams. Newton, Goethe, Runge, Ostwald—they not only wrote about color, but also drew diagrams, created circles, and conceived three-dimensional models. How to arrange colors? How to represent the relationships between colors? How to understand the workings of light and vision? That very diagram was their philosophy.

Sugiyama says he is strongly drawn to this as a designer.

"I'm not a colorist, I'm a graphic designer. Designers create books on color. People in the past did the same. There are many examples of painters, printmakers, and entomologists creating their own books on color. However, in modern times, those who write and those who draw have become separate. As a result, we've seen an increase in books that are just text."

This reveals an important perspective of 'COLOR COMPENDIUM'. Color is neither solely a science nor solely an art. It lies at the intersection of philosophy, printing, education, design, and visual culture. Therefore, to consider color, one needs not only the knowledge of researchers, but also the perspectives of those who handle diagrams, those who understand the properties of paper and ink, and those who can move between seeing and creating.

During the production process, he was also fortunate to have strong support from others. The contributors are Yo Kitabatake, Professor Emeritus at Bunka Women's University; Chiaki Yamane, a specialist in the history of color theory; and Eckhard Bendin, a color researcher at Dresden University of Technology. Bendin generously shared his extensive knowledge and digital data, accumulated over many years of research, with Sugiyama, and also served as the book's supervisor.

Eckhard Bendin, who established the world-leading "Color Research & Theory Collection of the TU Dresden" at Dresden University of Technology, is a researcher who considers color not only from a scientific perspective but also in relation to art and education. He deeply resonates with Goethe's theory of color and views color not merely as a numerical value, but as a comprehensive phenomenon encompassing human senses and imagination.

'COLOR COMPENDIUM' is not a book that ends with its initial completion; its content was refined through input from researchers. The act of turning the pages itself leads to an experience of understanding colors not merely by reading them, but by visually confirming them. This book was completed with the support of many Japanese specialists, including Ricoh's printing technology, Takeo's high-quality printing paper, Maruei's foil stamping, Eikudo's bookbinding technology, and Papercraft Ito's digital varnish processing.

So why is such a book necessary now? Sugiyama doesn't view color simply as a matter of color schemes. "I believe color lies at the heart of design philosophy. It's a history of how humans have understood light, and that connects to the history of color, and to the history of the human mind."

These words hold great significance for both designers and color researchers. Working with color isn't just about choosing beautiful combinations. It's about how to arrange, classify, and reproduce colors. Behind all of this lies the question of how we perceive the world. Digital technology has made it easy for us to view countless images. But that's precisely why Sugiyama insists on physical books. The RGB colors seen on a monitor are different from the ink colors fixed on paper. The texture of the paper, the depth of black, the physical sensation of turning pages—there are experiences there that are difficult to convey through screens alone.

"I'm still attached to paper media. The colors seen on a monitor are different from the colors reproduced on paper. I believe there's a wonderful quality to reading with your hands.". 'COLOR COMPENDIUM' is a book that compiles and reconstructs this long history of color analysis, using 1000 color diagrams and re-editing them with modern printing technology and the discerning eye of a designer. (Text by Hiroki Tokuyama, AXIS; first 2 Photos by Yuki Nitta, AXIS)