Why Signal is the red of a power light
Our new colour started as the small light on the back of Speaker One. Here is how it became the whole speaker.
Ines Marlow4 min read
Every Selm object has one small red detail. On Speaker One it is the power light, a 3 mm dot beside the dial that tells you the speaker is on. We chose that red in 2019, from a box of paint chips on the studio floor, and we have matched it on every object since.
Last winter we painted a whole speaker in it to check the light from across the room. It sat on the shelf for a week. Nobody wanted to put it away.
Matching a colour across materials
A red that looks right on a painted chip looks different on cast aluminium, and different again on silicone. The shell takes the colour as a powder coat; the foot is tinted silicone; the dial cap is anodised. Each one shifts the hue a little, so we mixed three reds that read as one under daylight and under a warm 2700 K bulb.
If a colour only works in the photo, it does not work. It has to work on a bookshelf at nine at night.
It took eleven rounds of samples. The last change was the smallest: we cooled the silicone red by a few points, because under a lamp the foot looked browner than the shell.
Why only some objects
Signal is on Speaker One and Desk Clock, the two objects people tend to keep in plain sight. We tried it on Headphone One and it was too much on a head. Colours are added slowly here: every one we add is one we promise to make spare parts in for ten years.
Ines Marlow, Co-founder, design