There are few colors as iconic and coveted as Tiffany Blue. The hue is instantly identifiable as the luxury jewelry brand’s signature color, partly because it has been kept under lock and key through extreme trademark rights usage restrictions and licensing since its inception. First introduced way back in 1837 by Charles Tiffany and John Young, Tiffany Blue has always been exclusive and accessed only by the elite.
That is, until now. Famous (or infamous, depending on who you’re asking) color liberator Stuart Semple has swooped in to free Tiffany Blue once and for all with the creation of his newly released Tiff Blue. Semple has already made a name for himself as a Robin Hood of color, hellbent on democratizing the rainbow. He recently released “the blackest black ink,” Blink, and offers products like Mirror, “The world’s mirroriest mirror chrome paint,” and Lit, “The world’s glowiest glow pigment,” on his online store Culture Hustle.
As a working artist in his own right and extreme color lover, Semple has been on a crusade to unshackle imprisoned colors for years.
“I’ve always loved color. It started when I was eight, and my mum took me to see a real-life Van Gogh,” Semple shares. “But as a young artist, I could never afford good materials, so I started making my own colors.” Then when the art community erupted over Anish Kapoor’s stranglehold on Vantablack in 2016, Semple was compelled to take a stand. “I realized I had my pinkest pink and felt like it would be good to release that to raise some awareness for the issues of color control, elitism, and the privilege of access to certain materials and processes.”
Semple believes that limiting a color’s usage is unethical and restricts creativity. “To me, every color already exists in nature, and I find it wrong and discriminatory when people privatize color and exclude others from using it in certain ways,” Semple says. “Controlling the use of a color can limit the potential of people to express themselves freely.”
Wherever Semple sees a color in duress, he heeds the call to rescue the hue and make it available to the masses. So naturally, there was no better renegade to take on the Tiffany Blue rescue mission. “It’s one of the iconic controlled colors, and most days, people write to me and ask if I can do something,” he says. “It’s less about the color and more about what it symbolizes; it’s a beacon of color control.”
Tiff Blue is a super flat matte high-grade shade of acrylic paint available for pre-order at $27.99 a 150ML bottle.
So what color is next for Semple? UPS brown? Hermes orange? Pepto Bismol pink? Only time will tell, but at least the color wheel can rest easy knowing Semple has its back.