PURPLE. AND 2025.

“Mike Schnaidt at Fast Company is doing a story on the color purple. He wants your take," my colleague Eron Lutterman says, just before the holiday break.

“I'd love to,” I said. 

Why?

My friends at Pantone had just declared the gooey, sweet, comforting (and decidedly neutral) “Mocha Mousse” as color of the year. Yes, I like it.

Although it may be - unfortunately - too fitting in the world of design and brand right now. 2024 was a year's worth of comforting, dulled-down and neutral thinking. Jaguar exploded, as we all saw. I believe much of that response was driven just by sheer contrast.

So I was thrilled to talk about something...anything as vibrant, as weird, as purple. 

Purple sat at the very heart of our redesign of Twitch. Twitch had always been all purple and completely one-of-one. We just leaned in to what was already special. And, because Twitch is always doing something interesting, and the designers there are good and talented, purple still works, years later.

I love purple.

Then Mike calls.

“I hate purple,” he begins.

Oh.

As Mike says in his attached story “in the world of branding, purple mumbles with indecision. Purple feels like a client that can’t choose a direction and a designer eager to wrap up the project: Let's just pick purple and call it a day. And when brands settle for indecision, they miss out on making an emotional impact…purple makes a brand feel emotionally torn, perplexed, ambivalent.”

He points to Hallmark as one example of aggressive, purple banality.

"..have you ever watched one of its movies, especially around the holidays? In "A Gingerbread Romance," an architect and a baker fall in love during a contest to produce a gingerbread house. It feels like the frenzied Hallmark writers chugged bottles of Robitussin and coughed out these stories, which are sticky-sweet, artificially flavored hallucinations of romance. That’s the real flavor of purple."

True. And funny. But, I said to Mike, you cannot blame purple. Purple is not just a color. It is a promise. To use purple is to meet an obligation to be original. Purple can work. But few pull it off. 

In his story, he admits Prince did.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91247888/why-purple-sucks

"Prince owned purple because he played guitar like no one else. His artistry redefined purple. Designers...have a responsibility—to themself, to their audience, and to Prince himself—to wield the color with decisiveness and to use it in surprising ways that challenge expectations."

I agreed.

But I only understood purple fully after I met Prince.

.....

In 1991, I worked at the Duffy Design Group in Minneapolis. We had been invited to design the concert book for Prince's upcoming tour. So, Joe Duffy sent me and a colleague off to Paisley Park.

We arrived early for an 8:30 AM meeting. As we waited in the lobby, a group of musicians were walking out of the recording studio, all carrying instruments. 

Jill Willis, Prince’s publicist, came over to greet us.

“Early morning?” I joked as I pointed at the departing musicians.

“No,” Jill said. “Prince had an idea late yesterday. He called everyone. They were here all night. ”

“All night?”

“Yes." Her tone was matter-of-fact. Price, I had heard, was possessed. Now I know.

“And he is ready to see you, now.”

We went in.

.....

It was no office. It was a purple, psychedelic volcano.

Lavender drapes and fringed lilac tapestries hung from the ceiling. Grape-colored pillows and violet cushions were scattered across the floor. A waterfall of gold and platinum albums and Grammys (and one glittering Oscar) surrounded us.

Jill led us to a sunny room just outside. Prince walked in.

Charming, but not chatty. We spoke for an hour. 

We would continue to meet at Paisley Park – updating, refining and fine-tuning the book each time Prince returned from a performance in Germany, Tokyo or wherever. He always arrived with new photography. This was as frustrating as it was inspiring. As much a perfectionist art director as a perfectionist musician, he weaved in new ideas everywhere he could. 

He had nine qualities that earned his his right to use purple:

1. Drop the known for the unknown.

 "People who have no creativity, talent, or courage are the ones who follow the rules…you don't need to follow the pack, because you transcend it.”

2. Intention shapes the future..

“I knew it would take time. And I had to deal with a lot of ridicule. Spiritually I feel very different from the way I used to, but physically? Not at all. I don't look at time that way, and I don't believe in age...Each day should be a new beginning. I don't have an expiration date.”

3. Run the other way. Fast.

“There was a lot of pressure from my ex-buddies in other bands not to have white members in the band. But I always wanted a band that was black AND white. Half the musicians I knew only listened to one type of music. That wasn't good enough for me.”

4. Reject all relationships that reject artists.

“Record contracts are just like—I'm going to say the word—slavery…Once we have our own resources, we can provide what we need for ourselves. We have to show support for artists who are trying to own things for themselves.”

5. Work / life? It is all one thing.

Work? Life? Recording? Performing? All one thing to him. On tour, he became legendary not only for playing sold-out stadium shows (that ran often hours after they were supposed to end ), but shows with a new set list each night. Once the show was over, he ran to jam with other famous musicians at parties in local, small nightclubs. For hours. 

6. Real artists ship.

“I like music to play in my car, but when I need something new to play I record something. Instead of buying a tape, I just make more music.” He was always recording.  He produced 39 studio albums. 

7. Failure does not exist.

“There are no accidents. And if there are, it's up to us to look at them as something else. Bravery…creates new flowers.”

8. Be generous. Not tacky.

Prince gave millions to social causes silently, including providing solar panels for underprivileged families in Oakland. They never knew who their benefactor was. Prince did not advertise his efforts. He thought it was in bad taste for any celebrity worth millions to write a check and then push their publicists to brag about it. 

He gave away songs. He wrote Nothing Compares to U and Sinead O'Connor had a massive hit. Then Manic Monday by the Bangles and Jungle Love by the Time. And on and on.

9. Keep flying.

 “I don’t live in the past. I don’t play my old records for that reason. I make a statement, then move on to the next.”

Sure, Prince flirted with lots of colors. Raspberry berets, little red corvettes, pink cashmere. But had he lived, he was going to bring his purple piano on tour.

Prince delivered on the demand of purple.

So, dammit, I agree with Mike. I now hate purple. Unless you commit to dropping the known for the unknown. For the weird. For the original.

Given so much lookalike work I see, I hope these principles might become points of departure for us. Reminders.

As for Hallmark? Well, my mom had a mad appetite for those gooey, sweet, reassuring movies like "A Gingerbread Romance." Millions do. They gobble them up like chocolates at the holidays.

So, as Mike Schnaidt just called me a "branding expert" in his story, I guess I can risk offering an idea to Hallmark.

May I suggest Mocha Mousse?

Seriously.

I know my mom would eat it up.