A Short History of the British Colour Council

Ribbon samples of colour from the Dictionary of Colour Standards

The British Colour Council (BCC) was set up in 1931 and chaired by Robert Francis Wilson, a designer and subsequent author of Colour in Industry Today: A practical book on the functional use of colour (1960). The organisation was charged with the responsibility for setting official standards for colours; to be used by government, the military, horticulture, the education system and industry. In 1934 the BCC oversaw the publication of its first significant work, the Dictionary of Colour Standards. Produced for the textile dye industry, in two volumes, it presented 220 colours as small strips of dyed silk ribbon. Each colour described was given a name - usually taken from the natural world - and a number. It is somewhat quaint that throughout the British Empire such "august bodies" as the British Army, the Royal Mail and the Royal Institute of Architects came to use a system that referred to colours named Old Rose 157 or Crushed Strawberry 158.

Colours were defined by three variables: hue, tone and intensity. Hue was the colour's position in the visible spectrum; tone was its lightness or darkness; intensity was its brightness or roughly what Adobe Photoshop users would think of as saturation.

In 1937 The BCC were consulted to advise on a range of "Traditional British Colours" to be used, for livery, flags and decorations in the coronation of George VI. It does make one wonder what un-British colours might be.

Two pages from a later edition of the Horticultural Colour Chart

In 1938, in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society, the BCC produced the first of two volumes of the Horticultural Colour Chart; also called The Wilson Colour Chart, after the the BCC's chair. The second volume followed some three years later, in 1941. In the first edition of this publication 200 hues were named and each presented, on its own detachable page, in three levels of lightness, amounting to a total of 600 colours. However in later editions each of these 200 hues were each presented in four levels of lightness, expanding the range of colours to 800. Each page listed names, in six different European languages, for the featured hue and gave a brief outline of its historical context and usage. It did not mention, however,  that the origin of the yellow pigment used to make Indian Yellow:  the urine of cattle, on a diet comprising exclusively of mango leaves.

The cover of Lighting in Factories and Offices

Following the end of the Second World War, there was a nationwide drive to improve the conditions of working people and the BCC's Colour and Lighting in Factories and Offices was a small but significant part of that effort. Issued in 1946 this publication gave clear and rather sensible advice on how to improve morale and productivity, in the workplace, by the considered use of lighting and colour. In the words of  A W Garrett, the wartime HM Chief Inspector of Factories:

"Here in this booklet artistic and technical authorities have been enlisted to suggest schemes of colouring and methods of application which may turn the ordinary drab working place into a scene of cultural refreshment.”

Lighting in Factories and Offices proved to be very successful and a second, revised edition was produced in 1956. Its effectiveness in improving and brightening up the nation's working environment is said to have been instrumental in raising the public appetite for similar improvements in the home.

A page from Dictionary of Colours for Interior Decoration

A further work was considered necessary for the world of interior design; as the Dictionary of Colour Standards' focus on the textile industry did not take account of certain factors. Some pigments which were very useful in the manufacture of clothes lacked the permanence necessary for curtains, upholstery, carpets and rugs; some lacked other physical properties necessary for their use in paint, ceramics, glass, vitreous enamel and associated applications. Consequently the three volume Dictionary of Colours for Interior Decoration was published by the BCC in 1949. Each of the 378 colours described were depicted in three kinds of surface: matt, gloss and a kind of carpet like pile fabric.

Subsequently chaired by Leslie Hubble; the BCC continued to issue publications through the 1960s and although its work became superceded by the British Standards organisation, its codes are still used by horticulturalists and by certain sections of industry both in the UK and the Commonwealth.