THE AMAZING STORY OF KOLORMONDO
Told by Nicoline Kinch, inventor and founder of Kolormondo.
IT STARTED WITH A SIMPLE QUESTION
Why was it so difficult to match colors? Why did brown pants not work with a brown top — even though both were “brown”? I could clearly see that the colors did not match, but I did not understand why.
Eventually, I realized something important: I was not color blind — I was color illiterate. I had never learned the basic language of color or understood how colors actually relate to one another. That realization became the beginning of Kolormondo.
THE MOMENT EVERYTHING CHANGED
In 2010, while running a theater school for children and a holiday rental business, I attended a workshop on color theory. There, we painted Johannes Itten’s famous color star by mixing primary colors into gradually shifting shades and tones.
For the first time, I truly saw how colors transformed. Red could become pink in one direction and brown in another. Orange could become apricot — or a completely different brown. Suddenly, I understood that colors are not defined only by hue, but also by value and chroma. It completely changed the way I saw color.
DISCOVERING COLOR IN 3D
During the workshop, the teacher explained that the color star could theoretically be transformed into a sphere. In this model, white would become the North Pole and black the South Pole, while colors would move around the Equator and gradually shift toward gray in the center.
Suddenly, color made sense as a three-dimensional system rather than a flat diagram. But there was one problem: the globe did not actually exist. I wanted to hold it in my hands, turn it around, and understand it physically.
So I glued my painted color star onto an old tangerine — creating the very first prototype of Kolormondo.
FROM IDEA TO INVENTION
What started as curiosity quickly became a mission. I began exploring construction methods, materials, educational possibilities, and how such a tool could help people understand color more intuitively.
That journey eventually led to four patents and several international design awards, including the Inventors Prize of the City of Stockholm and the London Design Award.
Kolormondo was developed together with industrial designer Jonas Ahnme, who helped shape the product design, and graphic designer Daniel Bjugård, who developed the visual identity and construction concept.
Discover the Kolormondo globes →
WHY KOLORMONDO IS DIFFERENT
Traditional color systems were historically based on RYB — red, yellow, and blue. Kolormondo instead uses CMY: cyan, magenta, and yellow. This modern color approach creates a more logical and accurate understanding of how colors actually interact and relate to one another.
That became one of the key innovations behind Kolormondo: bringing historical color knowledge into the modern world through a physical and interactive 3D model.
FROM SWEDEN TO THE WORLD
Soon after launch, Kolormondo was presented at the AIC World Colour Congress, where the response from color experts, educators, designers, and universities was overwhelmingly positive.
Today, Kolormondo is used around the world in universities, architecture schools, fashion education, design studios, museums, and creative companies. Brands such as Akzo Nobel, Apple, Chanel, L’Oréal, and Hugo Boss have used Kolormondo for color training, inspiration, and creative discussions.
THE MISSION
Kolormondo was created to make color easier to understand, discuss, and enjoy. The mission has always been simple:
“To enable anyone and everyone to know, enjoy, use and talk color.”
And the long-term goal remains the same:
“Kolormondo should become as common in classrooms as the globe of our Earth.”
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF COLOR
Kolormondo began with curiosity, frustration, and one handmade prototype attached to a tangerine. Today, it helps people around the world understand color in a completely new way.
