Purple, magenta, aubergine, indigo, cherry black, iris blue, heliotrope…call it what you may, it’s the colour of choice for Seraph Production and it would seem for everyone else from the fashion cognoscenti to the global political class in 2008.

Defined as a shade of colour, by Wikipedia, as

occurring between red and blue…..in both subtractive pigment and additive light combinations…

it classically represents royalty, nobility, penitence.

It luxury conotations date from eons ago, when the Phoenicians in the ancient city of Tyre, now part of Lebanon, derived the hue from crushing marine snails, or mollusks in huge quantities. Even then the colour was actually a result of some pretty complex chemistry.  To produce enough dye for one toga required 10,000 mollusks, thus the dye was literally worth more than its weight in gold. Indeed the whole “red carpet” thing was originally Tyrian Purple reserved for the most wealthy.

The romans prized the colour in their garments, as did the europeans with blue which is also a fiendishly difficult colour to attain through dyes. However a closer look at the colour in recent popular culture, reveals the potent symbolism it holds as a creative, inspiring and even rebellious force.

My childhood memories of the colour I suppose are more due to the associations of purple with chocolate, courtesy of Cadbury´s in the UK and their enduring branding of the colour and their products.

Be it the James Bondesque Milk Tray ads, or the laden innuendo of the Flake bar, past and present Cadbury´s retain to this day some iconic advertising, with their most recent ad, Gorilla, a simple but captivating clip, winning 2008 Grand Prix Cannes Lions award.

As a creature of the 1980s how could you avoid Prince without thinking of the colour, given his obsession with it. Even to this day any comment he makes gets labeled as a purple rage, be it his quest to sue YouTube over copyright infringement or more recent controversial social comments.

As the preferred hue of rock artists, purple was and remains a perennial favourite of the psychedelic 1960s era. Trace a revolutionary purple line, or haze if you must, from Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles to the metal 1970s era, Deep Purple, punk Psychedelic Furs of the 1980´s, even beyond the sign of the times era of the 90s to the Gypsy Punk sound from Gogol Bordello - if you haven´t heard of them, they are among those that Madonna calls on for musical collaborations.

The Royal Society of Chemistry gleefully documented shades of purple with a dedicated microsite about 150th anniversary of the William Perkin, a chemist who discovered the synthetic dye mauveine in 1853.

It seems the colour is inescapable in modern life. The more I look around the more I see it on my calculator keyboard, on the connection of the keyboard to my computer.

It seems the colour never goes out of fashion. Don´t just take our word for it, this is how Elle reported the trend emerging from New York fashion week.

Note how the journalists are covering the phenomenon in the dress sense of the Hollywood trend setters and in fashion opinion from every quarter. They even name lofty fashion industry magazines after the colour.

Fashion inevitably crept into the USA elections when the wardrobe choices of Vice Presidential candidate were exposed at the same time commentators raved about Michelle Obama´s dress sense.

Her fashion choices prompted articles both sides of the Atlantic to hail new trends hitting the high streets.

And what of the significance of the colour politically speaking?

Politically, the colour has historic significance in the stories of oppression such as its significance during Nazi rule and as recently celebrated in a hit broadway musical as an adaptaion from the Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize Winning Story.

As a mix of primary red and blue, some would see the trend of purple as befitting to the vision of the historic win of the democratic candidate.

it means the color purple rules

(Note even the opening news credits from Channel 4 borrow tones from our prized palette!)

It´s an odd series of factors that come together to determine when or which colour becomes de rigueur at any point in time. Time magazine investigates this with an excellent piece about the colour puzzle:

analysts and anthropologists who study shifts in chromatic preferences see this particular manifestation–the purple proliferation–as a sign of our uncertain times

Indeed, the article cites that those colour professionals that are Pantone inc. decided upon Blue Iris becoming the beautifully balanced blue-purple, as the color of the year for 2008 about a year ago now.

When it comes to colour descriptions, Pantone has a way with words that paint manufacturers and perfume packaging copywriters would invariably envy:

Combining the stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple, Blue Iris satisfies the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement.

Closer to UAE shores, I note the opening of Qatar Museum of Islamic Art celebrated its opening with a splendid fireworks show culminating in a illuminated curtain of pyrotechnic purple glory.

In Dubai, no less, the advanced metro system will soon boast some 50km of the Purple Line with key stops along the the Al Khail Road and creating a link between the airports.

Despite our penchant for the shade of han purple, unfortunately we cannot campaign for the colour to the same degree as other internet behemoths. It would seem despite an admirable viral campaign earlier this year to start wearing purple Yahoo! have been plagued with bad news during most of 2008.

Recently Jerry Yang, the founder of Yahoo!, announced his is finally stepping down as CEO. True to form his departing note stated he that he would run through walls for the company and made a reference to the company´s colour:

All of you know that I have always, and will always, bleed purple…

We kind of know the feeling Jerry.

With regards to the term Seraph in the company name, we will leave that one for another day.

I´ll sign off with a tune to believe in from Gogol Bordello.