Sherwin-Williams Color Portal

The research helped us guide the composition and build a very controlled and atmospheric sense of color. The environments we depicted were specific and based on real, if idealized, locations but they had to inherit the palette of the cards in the opening, which turned out to be a surprisingly tough challenge.

The precise three color palette shown in the opening serves as the inspiration (Or is it the locations that inspired the colors?) for the idealized landscapes we explore in the rest of the spot.

Each environment is tailored to the cameras perspective; a story that unfolds and motivates the camera from one place to the next through its staging and composition.

As with every Sherwin-Williams project, highly crafted models go hand-in-hand with a kichen sink approach to color. This time was no different. Our paint chip creatures are always a labor of love to produce.

We’ve always taken a lot of inspiration from complex oragami patterns — as well as just bending & cutting a bunch of reference cards — in an effort to make each design feel believably formed and constructed with care.

However, each and every peice of the environement gets just as much attention. Rocks, trees, rivers, and beach towels need love too.

(A dewlap is the fleshy hanging neck thing you see on creatures like the Moose, above. The more you know!)

Each one of these Sherwin spots is a new and interesting puzzle to solve. In this series, the restricted palette and the camera movement’s motivations were the catalyst for innovating new ways to bring the paint chips to life.

Manny of those new methods are subtle, but surpisingly complex. In both Beach and Mountain we build ambient enviromental effects including the simulation of complex water systems.

Adapting card stock to mimic the motion, turbulence, refractions, and reflections of water was no small feat, but not one that thousands of slightly varied color chips couldn’t solve.

It’s a testament to the BUCK Sherwin team that we are able to find new ways to keep this long-running idea fresh and exciting over a decade after we began.

See more of our earlier work with Sherwin-Williams.