COLOURS IN BUSINESS

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 June 1927, Page 2

COLOURS IN BUSINESS

MEANS OF ADVERTISEMENT. Emerging from an era of dull and uninviting colours, railroads, trolley lines automobile manufacturers, and others in the transportation field are turning to the several hues of the rainbow in which to array their new products, in the belief that the gay and vivid varnish will in itself be an asset in building up business (says the “Christian Science Monitor”). At the various motor shows during the past winter variegated assortments of maroon, cream, buff, yellow, white, light blue, arid green cars were displayed to an admiring public, and dealers freely declared that in a short time the streets of American cities would present a kaleidoscopic effect with cars of every shade and hue flashing in the sunlight. Trolley lines in increasing numbers are turning to the brighter colours partly in an effort to attract patronage from the übiquitous bus lines with which they are forced to compete in growing numbers. In the lead themselves in the utilisation of gay colours, the motor coaches present a handsome, and in some instances a grotesque, appearance with their glistening bodies of light varnish, ornamented with contrasting stripes and lettering. In the steamship field, the Canadian Pacific has returned to the use of white paint for its trans-Pacific Empress ships, and the great white liners, with their bands of gold, will vie with those of the United Fruit Line in the Atlantic in carrying to foreign ports the cheeriness of a glistening white hull. Although the railroads have been slow to turn to the more brilliant colours in the matter of ornamentation, there have been for some time, a few railroads which have painted their passengers cars a distinctive shade. Thus the tuscan red of the Pensylvania, the yellow of the Milwaukee and of the North-western, the blue of the Wabash’s leading train, and the use of colours by other roads —either as a fixed policy, or in the case of one specific train —has been a notable feature of these progressive lines. To conform to the colour scheme of the railroad oi- the individual train, the Pullman Company has painted its cars a similar colour when operated regularlj r on the lines of these roads. Thus, with competing carriers on the highways, varnished in bright colours, the need for a more modern attitude toward this form of advertising has been impressed upon the railroads. It is not likely that the famous “Ghost Train,” in its pure white, which the New York and New England made famous 30 years ago will be attempted, nor even that art commissions will be appointed to contrive harmonious colour effects, as was done in the case of Kansas City’s street cars. Yet there is reason to believe that the sombre blacks and “brewster greens” of rail coaches and the dirty black of their locomotives will presently yield to brighter colours, and that rail terminals may present the appearance of a motor salon, with the cars and engines of the several roads using the station standing on adjacent tracks, resplendent in their bright colourings. Surely the effect on traffic would be beneficial, and there is every reason to believe that employees would feel a deep sense of pride and satisfaction in being assigned to handle equipment* of this character.