This project was initiated and managed by USC Lecturer Kevin Todd. The purpose of the Chroma 256 Project was to create an awareness of the complexity of our relationship and use of colour and to explore whether a standardisation is occurring due to computer-based technologies—both in terms of the internet and in the teaching of design—where software has also become international.

Is digital technology creating a cultural space that requires a particular kind of conformity; technological sophistication masking cultural simplicity/homogeneity? Colour is at once simple and complex, something that can be ephemeral or concrete, experienced and imagined; part culture, science and personal preference. Colour is a primary component of human communication and can signify, express or suppress emotions, status, sexuality, class and power.

However, the colour experience of the current generation of design students (digital natives) has assumed an international dimension and standardisation due to the proliferation of the internet and the extent to which the technical parameters of media have influenced colour display.

Chroma 256 was a project developed to explore relationships to colour in an international context, a simple idea with a complex outcome; part culture, research and personal expression.

The project involved design students in Australia, China, Turkey, Ecuador, South Africa, India, Germany and the United States undertaking the same colour project with the outcome being exhibited in each country.