Cromorama by Riccardo Falcinelli, a journey through the colors that have changed our gaze

Cromorama by Riccardo Falcinelli: a fundamental book for understanding the power of colors and how they work

If you are a lover of art and graphics, you cannot miss Cromorama by Riccardo Falcinelli (Einaudi). This book is not only an essay on the history of colors, but it is also a journey through human culture and society, which shows how our way of seeing the world has changed over the centuries thanks to the discovery and use of colors.

In an interview, Falcinelli said «All the books that talk about color are art history books. And I said to myself: “me I want to write a book that explains how color works by putting together great works of art and the banal things we have around us every day"»

The author takes us into a world of images and sensations, through the history of art and visual culture. With clean and engaging writing, the author explains to us how colors influence our way of perceiving reality, how they have been used over the centuries and how they influence our emotions and our communication.

If you have read his book Figures. How images work from the Renaissance to Instagram (of which you can read the review here), you can't miss Cromorama, because it is not just a book for art enthusiasts, but it is a text that it should be read by anyone who works with images, from design to advertising, from photography to marketing. Falcinelli, in fact, explains to us how colors are essential for visual communication, and how their use influences the perception of the message we want to convey.

But Cromorama is also a book for all those who want to better understand the world around them. The author explains to us how colors have been used for political, religious and social purposes, how they have been associated with certain symbols and how they have been used to influence the masses.

Cromorama is a book about history, culture, art and science. It is a book that teaches us how colors have been used to create and transmit messages, to provoke emotions and to communicate ideas.

Cromorama by Riccardo Falcinelli answers many questions that we have probably never asked ourselves:

• Why is pink a “female” color?
• Why is the Madonna's dress blue?
• Can you paint with pigments extracted from embalmed mummies?

Cromorama, How color has changed our gaze by Riccardo Falcinelli is a fundamental book for all those who want understand the power of colors and their influence about our daily lives. By reading it, you will have the opportunity to discover how our way of seeing the world has changed thanks to the discovery and use of colors, and how the use of colors can influence the perception of the message we want to convey.

You can listen to Riccardo Falcinelli talk about creativity in this TEDx

Riccardo Falcinelli he is a visual designer and teaches at the ISIA Faculty of Design in Rome. Published:

• Making books, Rome, minimum fax, 2011.
• Watch. Think. To design, Alternative Press & Graffiti, 2011.
• Portable criticism of visual design. From Gutenberg to social networks, Einaudi, 2014
• Cromorama. How color has changed our gaze, Einaudi, 2017
• Figures. How images work from the Renaissance to Instagram, Einaudi, 2020