Member-only story
Purple ≠ money
Fintech, magic, and murder — purple rules them all. Introduction to advanced visual storytelling of colors.
In the last decade or so, purple has grown dull. If one goes rummaging the internet trying to find the reasons people use it for logos, you’d mostly see the explanation that it’s because purple symbolizes wealth and royalty.
It’s a curious thing. The most mystical of colors, the rarest whisper of nature, ended up largely appropriated by Fintech (financial technologies).
This story is based on two books. One is on advanced visual storytelling, “If it’s purple, someone’s gonna die” by Patti Bellantoni. The other is called “Blue: History of Color” by a French medievalist Michel Pastoureau.
The story is for designers who crave more than the surface-level takes on “purple” found in countless articles about company logos. And, well, for those who want to know why the “You look lonely, I can fix that” scene in “Blade Runner 2049” is all purple.
Purple or violet?
Now, I can already hear the question: “What the heck are you talking about, Rita? The color on the cover image with Ryan Gosling is clearly violet, not purple.” Purple, violet. Neon purple. The color of the plum:
You know which color tones I have in mind:
Even Pantone intermingles “purple” and “violet” when they write about them. So, who am I to decide if it’s violet or purple that I will write about today? What’s important is that…
It’s the color Fintech really loves
For most of my career, I’ve worked for Fintech companies. One thing that unites a lot (a lot) of them, except for the crazy interfaces that are hard to navigate, is the color of their logos.
Many of them are purple:
