Thursday, October 30, 2008

The Dutch Fireball Theory

Dutch Fireball Red is a commercial ink color made by the Van Son Holland Ink Corporation of America designated as number 185 in the Pantone Color Matching System.

I work as a letterpress printer full-time, and I'm interested in using my day to day work as an entry point for exploration as an artist and a craftsperson. 

A true red can be hard to achieve for someone concerned with color, and Dutch Fireball can be a good ink for a printer to start with. You can always add rubine red to make it rosier or black to make it darker or transparency to make it lighter.

But austere tastes prefer things in black and white with a conservative use of bright red for contrast and emphasis.