Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Colorama: Il mio campionario cromatico

Rate this book
Dall'azzurro limpido di un cielo sereno al rosso vivo dei papaveri, dal verde delicato di un lichene al giallo acceso dei mezzi da cantiere, dal piumaggio rosa dei fenicotteri al viola intenso della barbabietola... Colorama, il mio campionario cromatico ci svela i segreti di tante sfumature: da dove viene l'indaco? A cosa serve il bruno di mummia? Cos'hanno in comune una fragola e una foglia autunnale? Un inventario (133 pantoni) per scoprire e capire l'universo poetico dei colori, attraverso la loro storia. Età di lettura: da 6 anni.

280 pages, Hardcover

Published September 17, 2017

11 people are currently reading
362 people want to read

About the author

Cruschiform

11 books8 followers
CRUSCHIFORM IS A FRENCH CREATIVE STUDIO BASED IN PARIS, WORKING ON A VARIETY OF PROJECTS FROM ILLUSTRATIVE FORMS TO A FULL ART DIRECTION AND GRAPHIC DESIGN SOLUTIONS,
ALL IN-HOUSE.

My name is Marie-laure Cruschi. I founded the studio in 2007 with the hope to continuously experiment and explore new areas, challenge my own limitations working towards the most appropriate outcome for each project.

My art grows into the poetry of simple modular forms. Little by little, my graphic vocabulary get more and more figurative, driving me to new narratives territories, without loosing sight that I believe the best work is
a combination of a keenness mind, a great know-how, a good dose of insight and a bit of malice.

For many years I have the pleasure of working in close collaborative partnership with some amazing clients such as cultural revues and fashion magazines, children book publishers, music bands or luxury brands.

Source: Author website.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
137 (48%)
4 stars
97 (34%)
3 stars
40 (14%)
2 stars
8 (2%)
1 star
3 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
Profile Image for Vera Godley.
2,001 reviews56 followers
May 22, 2018
First of all, this is a rather unique book.

While classified as a children's book, I believe only older children would find it appealing. I believe that older children, teens, and adults who have interest in the story behind color designations and graphic arts would find this book to be worth investigating.

If you want to know where the term "carrot top" originated and the tonal color that this term implies, well, there is a sheet dedicated to that.

This is a well bound book with thick pages that will take much handling which makes it highly suitable for classroom and library collections. However, it should be understood that this book does not show every color, shade, tonal hue but is a wonderful collection of "named" colors.

Indexed in the back is the Color Palette covered in this volume as well as a Thematic Index. Basically, the book begins with White (White Snow) and proceeds from that to a host of colors and their shades.

I found the stories short and interesting. I found the variety of colors beautiful.

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy from MMPublicity on behalf of Prestel Publishing to facilitate this review. Opinions are my own, alone, and are freely given without compensation.
Profile Image for Stacie.
1,909 reviews123 followers
May 31, 2018
One of the first things you teach a young child is color. You point out the grass and the sky and the ball explaining the color and asking your child to then define items by color. This thick book takes the various shades of 133 colors and gives them a name and an identifier. By offering descriptions, children will start to notice the slight differences in the shades from the white of milk to the white of a cotton flower. There is a difference. The book follows the shades of the rainbow order, white to pink to red to orange to yellow to green to blue to purple to brown to black and grey. Then each of those basic colors has various shades of them, like Blue Shell, the blue-green of a robin's egg or Security Yellow, the yellow of a school bus.

Each color is given two pages, one page includes a photo of the item in the color described along with an explanation. The second page is a full-rectangle of the color. Flipping through the pages fast offers the reader a rainbow flipping in front of their eyes.

The descriptions not only offer the color but why that color is the chosen color for that item. It could be a biological reason like Pink Flamingo is that shade of pink because of the shrimp the flamingo eats or because a color like the name Bluebonnet was chosen for the Texas flower because it was similar to the headwear of pioneering women.

I found this book so fascinating. As an adult, we see color all day long, but don't think about the various shades of that color. How school bus yellow is different from the yellow of an egg yolk or the pollen yellow in a flower. In this summer season where our world is bursting with color from the flowers in our yard, to the amazing sunsets at night to the bugs and frogs and popsicles and candy, children can notice the various differences and then look up the colors when they get home.

This is a book that would also be perfect for artists, decorators, or fashion designers looking for that perfect color. Think of it as a paint palette in a book or use it for inspiration when choosing a color. The end of the book offers an index of every color as well as a thematic index like modes of transport, precious stones, birds, or flowers, for example.

Cruschiform is a Paris-based creative studio that specializes in illustration and graphic design. It was founded in 2007 by Marie-Laure Cruschi. In researching for this book, the author used her childhood memories to guide her. Much like a scent or a sound can take you back to a place and time, so can a color. For me, the pink of a Star Gazer Lily will remind me of the flowers at my Aunt Emily's home and the love I felt there. This book has been meticulously researched and is a treasure.
Profile Image for Michael Fitzgerald.
Author 1 book64 followers
April 7, 2018
A pretty book, but twice as long as it needed to be. The full page "swatches" of colors are wasteful.

There is no alphabetical index, so finding a specific color isn't as easy as it could be. I was checking for magenta, which seems to be absent. Ditto carnation pink, candy apple red, fire engine red, kelly green, forest green, teal, navy blue, cerulean blue, and others. I know that the book can only have so many, but those seemed kind of obvious ones.

Different colors labeled "carrot" and "carrot top" (supposedly the color of people's red hair) - hmm. Not sure about that. And "poop"? Really? As just one specific "deep brown"? Any diaper-changing parent will tell you that there's a range. (Baby-sh*t brown is a known quantity - and it's not "deep brown.")

Also, I don't understand that chartreuse is blue. Everything I know about chartreuse is either green or yellow.

Apparently, a big work in the world of defining colors is Chromatography by George Field. When I look at the named colors there, I don't see many of them in this book. I'd much rather have those than many of the ones that do appear.

So, for my purposes, the subjectivity of this book is a flaw.
43 reviews21 followers
January 3, 2019
Come spesso accade le idee più semplici sono le più geniali, Colorama non fa eccezione. Questo libro, difatti, non è altro che un campionario di 133 colori illustrati attraverso un pantone e una breve descrizione che ne delinea la storia, tuttavia è capace, attraverso una grafica affascinante, di utilizzare tutto il potere evocativo dei colori e delle loro storie per suscitare meraviglia. Un libro che educa alla Bellezza, ottimo per i ragazzi ma anche per gli adulti, soprattutto per quelli che hanno mantenuto la capacità di stupirsi.
Profile Image for Claudia.
378 reviews7 followers
March 26, 2018
Una piccola chicca.
Un campionario cromatico con l'anima del poeta.
133 pantoni presentati con nomi evocativi e fortemente descrittivi (cedro azzurro, chiaro di luna, gatto certosino,...). A ciò viene sempre affiancata una pagina dove il colore è riportato cromaticamente, a tutto campo, in purezza e un'altra dove si trovano sia un'illustrazione a tema e un breve testo.
Bellissimo da sfogliare, con qualche informazione stuzzicante...perfetto per grandi e bambini.
Profile Image for NoBeatenPath.
245 reviews10 followers
December 28, 2018
Though marketed as a children's book, this is a classy graphic design book about colour. Beautifully illustrated, and organised in a quirky manner, this is a good book for all colour lovers.

Make sure to check the index and the category the colours are organised by.
604 reviews7 followers
July 27, 2018
The only thing I really don't like about this book is the size. This would work better as a huge coffee table book.
Profile Image for Rosemary.
455 reviews16 followers
May 16, 2018
You know how a color can evoke a memory, or a feeling? Maybe the color red evokes the memory of reading Little Red Riding Hood as a child; maybe yellow brings back the time you had a favorite pair of rain boots. Colorama: From Fuschia to Midnight Blue works on that idea; memory through shades of color. There are 133 different colors in here, varying monochromatic shades of whites, reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, violets, browns, blacks, and grays. Each spread includes an illustration of a color; a description of a color memory, and a full-page swatch of the color. You won't believe how many shades you'll find in here; it provides minds with a color palette to draw from, whether through color or through words, and it's loaded with memory prompts for art and writing ideas. There's something new to learn with each turn of the page: Milk owes its color to milk proteins and globs of fatty matter; shrimp and flamingoes both owe their coloring to the pigment astaxanthin, and the kiwi fruit is named after the kiwi bird, because the hairy fruit resembles Australia's national bird's plumage. There's an incredible amount of information to be found in this beautiful volume!

This is a multi-purpose reference book that works for upper middle grade, middle school, and high school students that also works as a gift book for a budding artist. Appendixes include a color palette in order of presentation in the book and a thematic index that lays out colors by themes including mammals, birds, clothes and fabrics.
Profile Image for My’.
11 reviews
November 17, 2025
Connaissant plutôt bien les nuances de couleurs en général, et le cas échéant l’objet ou la chose qu’ils décrivent, je dois dire que j’ai été déçue de l’impression, bien trop foncée sur beaucoup de teintes
Profile Image for Mrs Mommy Booknerd http://mrsmommybooknerd.blogspot.com.
2,226 reviews93 followers
June 1, 2018
I love this book so much. I never really understood why there are so many different shades of the same color or the story behind them. In this detailed, bright and oh so colorful book you will get to dive into 133 different colors and discover that there is so much more behind the colors we adore. My son loves to color (as to I) and now we are both so much more invested and picky about color we chose for our pages so that we can really embrace the stories behind the colors. This book is heavy (which I love) and the cover is beautiful and textured. The pictures inside are beautiful and feel amazing. This book is great for kids, adults or anyone really. It also would make a great gift and a great coffee table book.
Profile Image for Cristina Di Matteo.
1,488 reviews39 followers
October 13, 2025
*Colorama: Il mio campionario cromatico* di Cruschiform è un viaggio visivo attraverso le infinite sfumature del colore. Ogni pagina presenta una tonalità accompagnata da un oggetto, un’emozione o un’immagine evocativa, trasformando il libro in una piccola enciclopedia poetica del mondo visivo. Elegante, educativo e sorprendente, è un albo che invita a guardare con attenzione ciò che ci circonda, scoprendo come ogni colore racconti una storia diversa.
Profile Image for Pavlov813.
431 reviews9 followers
November 29, 2018
Bello. Dà grandissima soddisfazione. Io adoro i pantoni e le diciture corrette dei colori. Una maglia non è 'rosa'. È cipria, oppure rosa antico, oppure rosa confetto. Altrimenti è magenta, o rosa shocking, oppure color carne. So che esiste una edizione in cui ci sono le figurine coi colori: ancora più bella. Un libro da sfogliare periodicamente e da tenere in salone per gli ospiti.
Profile Image for Elly Fox.
60 reviews5 followers
July 7, 2019
Il libro è molto carino. Tutte le pagine a sinistra presentano il nome del colore e una descrizione di poche righe, mentre quelle a destra mostrano solo il pantone. L'ho preso in biblioteca e sono contenta di aver scoperto alcune curiosità sui colori e i loro nomi, ma non è un libro che comprerei. L'ho trovato bello da sfogliare, ma non mi ha lasciato molto a fine lettura.
Profile Image for interno storie.
137 reviews52 followers
April 12, 2018
In Colorama di Cruschiform si danno i nomi ai colori che diventano cose, afferrabili, come “caschi blu”, “verde Parigi”, “marshmallow”, persino “cacca”: l’effetto Pantone che campeggia nella pagina accompagna ciascuna descrizione tra curiosità e genesi terminologica.
Profile Image for Bussi.
6 reviews1 follower
September 11, 2024
Un piccolo gioiellino! Curatissimo e molto bello dal punto di vista grafico, offre informazioni concise ma molto interessanti sui colori e sulle loro origini e caratteristiche.

Consigliato a grandi e piccini
Profile Image for Dustyloup.
1,324 reviews9 followers
July 16, 2024
Note 3* MAIS j'aurais pu le noter 1* aussi bien que 4. Pourquoi??

1* (les choses problématiques)
-problèmes de couleur...

....albâtre "imite...l'extrême blancheur de la chair" -euhhhh, ok...
Sur les 33 personnages humaines, il n'y avait que 5 personnes "de couleur" (sans compter le charbonnier) et la plupart était soit des symboles exotiques/étrangères, des ouvriers (mais à repos)

-problèmes de genre...
-Il n'y avait que 7 personnages féminins sur 33, pour la plupart dans des rôles passifs, juvéniles, coquettes, chics. ex: blanc poudre et rose layette! >_<
-Oui l'auteur/illustrateur a le droit d'utiliser les images qu'iel veut -- oh, pardon, qu'elle veut, CEPENDANT, il s'agit d'un livre de jeunesse et on est dans le 21eme siècle putain!
-Cette critique est moins contre Cruschiform, mais plutôt Gallimard Jeunesse

erreurs ou informations douteux
-kohl : Cléopatre"a lancé une mode" euh l'utilisation du kohl a existé bel et bien avant Cléo.
-brun de momie : "on broyait des corps momifiés" pour l'obtenir... Globalement, NON.

4* (les choses magnifiques)
-Les images font rêver, elles sont épurées et détaillées en même temps
-Les informations pourrait servir de tremplin pour un enfant curieux, même leur pousser à poursuivre une carrière scientifique, artistique, etc. On prend pas les enfants pour les cons, utilisant des noms latin/scientifiques pour expliquer l'origine de certains teints.
-Pour tous les âges - le côté rétrograde qui m'a déplu est quand même nostalgique et plaira aux personnes qui pensent que le passé était belle et bien meilleur!
-Pour les artistes en herbe, c'est une mine d'inspiration. les camaïeux sont bien choisis. Les images et les nuances peuvent servir comme marchepied pour ses propres créations.

Profile Image for Kayla Zabcia.
1,198 reviews8 followers
September 1, 2021
55%

Conceptually, I love this book. In practice, it fell a bit flat. The primary purpose of this book is to tell the stories/histories about colours and their names, and yet the written sections are disappointingly short - they just don't do a good job at delivering the story/history aspect.

The choice of colours was also....strange. There were so many whites/greys/blacks and yet only a handful of purples? It just felt weird. To be fair, this was originally an Italian book, so maybe their most common/popular colours are different from ours. But still, the lack of lilac, crimson, olive green, lavender, and others felt bizarre.

Lastly, I'm not sure if it's a printing thing, or a cultural difference, or just me, but some of the colours weren't right. The colour shown for purple was more like sangria, eggshell white was so dark it was almost beige, and robin egg blue (or "blue shell" in this book) was far too dark and green.
Profile Image for Costanza Riello.
50 reviews
February 1, 2025
Libro molto bello, come intuibile dal nome si tratta di un campionario, per cui ad ogni pagina corrisponde un disegno con il nome del colore, una piccola descrizione e poi nella facciata a lato c'è una stampa completa del colore di riferimento.

Non c'è il riferimento ad un codice colore ma sono catalogati per nome (bianco neve, bianco latte, bianco pace, albino, alabastro, bianco polare, fiore di cotone ecc).

Metto 5 stelle perchè vale la pena averlo in libreria, è un libro di consultazione soprattutto per chi lavora con i colori quotidianamente. Aiuta nell'identificazione delle sfumature e arrichisce il lessico personale nonchè una piccola cultura sul DOVE e QUANDO i colori hanno acquisito quel nome specifico.

Esempio:
Rosa Mountbatten
Questa sfumatura tra il rosa ed id il grigio venne inventata dall'ammiraglio britannico Luis Mountbatten durante la Seconda guerra mondiale. Quel colore tendente al malva doveva consentire alle navi del Royal Navy di passare inosservate.
Profile Image for Sara Ndogo.
70 reviews2 followers
January 16, 2022
Bellissimo libro!
Sono un grafico e ho apprezzato questo tomo a 360°. A partire dalla carta (bellissima al tatto e alla vista), fino all'impaginazione, passando per la scelta dei font, e le magnifiche e rifinite illustrazioni. La narrazione segue una linea cromatica, passando armonicamente da una tonalità all'altra e studiando ogni colore nel dettaglio. I testi, seppur brevi, sono molto interessanti e riportano sia curiosità sui colori che la loro origine. Alla fine del libro c'è un doppio indice: il primo per tonalità come da narrazione, il secondo suddiviso per argomenti trattati (es. Piante, minerali, insetti, oggetti, astronomia, etc..). Consigliatissimo anche come regalo per un appassionato o un professionista nel settore.
626 reviews22 followers
April 4, 2019
I stumbled across this at my local library and just picked it up thinking I would flick through it and pick and chose different pages to read. I ended up reading it cover to cover. It is a lovely little displayed book that when flicked displays a colourful rainbow. Each colour comes with a small paragraph of history or facts and a image. I really enjoyed this and would throw out small tie bits to my TV watching husband because I found it so interesting.
Profile Image for Polly Paupiette.
26 reviews2 followers
June 1, 2021
Ce livre est incroyable ! La petite histoire des nuances de couleurs est ultra documentée ! Les illustrations sont supers jolies !
Ce livre est un grand oui ! Que ce soit pour les grands et les petits !
Je l’ai emprunté mais je l’ai ajouté à ma wishlist car je souhaite qu’il rejoigne ma bibliothèque !
J’ai aussi appris quelques mots en plus des variations sur les nuances de couleurs !
Petoulette ! Je vous laisse chercher en tout cas j’ai beaucoup ri
Profile Image for Marta.
896 reviews13 followers
May 8, 2018
Colorama : imagier des nuances de couleurs (2017)

E' molto carino, però avrei messo qualcosa in più a livello di parte scritta (alcune curiosità molto interessanti, ad es. non sapevo che anche le pantere nere fossero maculate ton sur ton). Ammetto di non essere riuscita a cogliere le differenze cromatiche tra i vari tipi di nero
Profile Image for Crystal M.
379 reviews
December 19, 2019
The aesthetic quality was on point, but I don’t think a whole page had to be dedicated to just the color itself. I also wish there was more information provided about each color-each paragraph gave just the most basic info and each page left me wanting more. The info that was there though was intriguing and the illustrations were lovely. 3.5/5
Profile Image for ClaCle.
29 reviews4 followers
May 14, 2020
Un oggetto di design. Un prodotto editoriale che, in edizione italiana almeno, svela una maniacale cura del dettaglio da parte della casa editrice. Bravi Ippocampo! Una gioia per gli occhi le pagine monocromatiche e una soddisfazione poter finalmente dimostrare ad alcuni amici che la parola "azzurro" non basta da sola a definire l'intera gamma di sfumature di quel colore
Profile Image for MariaStefania -  Маша.
324 reviews
Read
January 15, 2020
No rating. Un libro molto colorato, molto bello, fatto per far avvicinare i bambini al mondo del colore. A mio parere più efficace di molti altri libri per adulti che si perdono in nozionismi inutili.
Profile Image for Célia.
37 reviews
August 10, 2020
Ce livre est merveilleux ! J’aurais pu continuer sa lecture encore longtemps... s’il avait eu encore plus de pages. Les nuances de couleur sont très agréables à regarder et les petites anecdotes accompagnant chaque image permettent de découvrir des choses intéressantes. J’adore !
Profile Image for Camilla Calanca.
21 reviews
January 4, 2022
Libro bellissimo da sfogliare, da leggere e da guardare per le meravigliose illustrazioni e le brevi e interessanti curiosità associate ai colori! Per gli amanti dei colori, delle belle illustrazioni e adatto anche ai bambini!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.