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Spent a full afternoon trying to match a weird client color from a napkin sketch
So a client gave me this logo idea drawn on a coffee shop napkin, and they were super specific about this one green color they wanted. It wasn't a normal green, it was like a dusty, muted sage but with a tiny bit more blue? I spent like 4 hours straight just in the color picker, trying to match it from a photo of the napkin under bad lighting. I tried sampling it, adjusting the sliders, looking at Pantone books, everything. It got to the point where my eyes felt weird and every green looked the same. I finally got it close by mixing a custom CMYK mix I never would have guessed, 65C 40M 70Y 10K. Has anyone else had a color matching nightmare that ate up way too much time?
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piper1755mo ago
Oh man, I used to think clients who got super hung up on a specific color were just being picky for no reason. But after trying to match a color from a photo of a faded paint chip my buddy took with his phone, I totally get it now. It's wild how a shade can look totally different on every screen and in every light, and you're stuck there moving sliders by like 2% at a time. It really messes with your head after a while, and you start seeing green spots everywhere. So yeah, I used to roll my eyes at that kind of thing, but now I just nod and feel the pain.
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matthewperry7mo ago
Oh man, that is the worst kind of treasure hunt. You start to question if the color even exists outside of that client's mind (and a coffee-stained napkin). The_david is totally right, it's the worst part, because you're basically a detective for a shade that probably looks different on every screen anyway. I've had those days where you just stare at the color picker until your brain feels like mush. That CMYK mix sounds like some kind of secret wizard spell you only find after hours of pain.
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