Photographer credit: Deryck Lewis

One of the accomplishments of colour management is the ability to make colour a universal language. Typically in the digital world colour gets divided into what may be considered as regional languages so that a specific shade of red seen on a particular computer screen in a certain ambient light gets translated to a different colour once it is output on a printer. And that distinct shade of red may change again on a different printer using an alternate substrate. Using custom ICC profiles and sensitive calibrating hardware, colour management creates a consistent colour no matter the platform or where you are in the workflow. So that the red in China is the same red in America so to speak.

Consistent colour is essential to a company such as ROLLOUT, a leader in the growing field of custom wallpaper and wallcoverings. From their offices in Toronto and Vancouver, they use a team of in-house and freelance illustrators, photographers and artists to create unique branded experiences and dynamic immersive spaces. Their clients include top hotels, restaurants and residential projects. But putting a custom package together is a complicated puzzle that relies on accurate and consistent colours. As Jonathan Nodrick. ROLLOUT’s President, explains, “we deal with projects from all over the world – from museums in Australia to the VIP tents of New York Fashion Week – and it is absolutely crucial that we provide consistent colour in our custom-made wallpaper”.

Working from a Pantone colour reference or swatch samples, ROLLOUT relies on the services of Chromalink to make sure that the wallpaper colours are perfectly in sync with the reference material. “Chromalink has created a system that performs to our specific needs”, Nodrick says. Along with tailormade solutions, Chromalink informs and instructs each client on how they can consistently achieve the best results from their colour workflow. Nodrick is relieved to point out that Chromalink “not only got our machines set to the media that we print on but also took the time to explain how and why things work”. Good service should also be the same in any language.