School colors
Columbia's official School Colors are "Columbia Blue" and white. Both colors were originally drawn from the two literary societies that were at the heart of student life in the 19th century: blue from the Philolexian Society, and white from the Peithologian Society.
Contents
History
The history of the Blue and White dates back to at least 1852, when the Philolexian and Peithologian Societies each reduced their palette of society colors from two apiece (Blue and Silver for Philo, White and Gold for Peitho) to one apiece.[1] While the colors entered into general usage by students during the 19th century, they first came into prominent use by the school in 1873 "at the boat race in Springfield" according to Dean John Howard Van Amringe.[2]
The Philolexian Society maintains to this day, in mock indignation, the position that the school colors are in fact stolen. In 1986, one member of the society wrote a letter to the President of the University demanding $1 million in restitution.[3]
Current Definition
The University published a visual identity guide in May 2009 identifying Pantone 290 as the official "Columbia Blue."[4] The guide also identifies Pantones 280, 284, 286, and 291 as interchangeable palette choices for use with different backgrounds. Pantone 290 had previously been identified as the preferred form of Columbia Blue by Columbia College in its own no-longer-circulated Visual Identity Guide which appears to have been published in 2008.[5]
Past Attempts to Define
"Columbia Blue" had been a hard color to pin down historically. A column in the February 1949 Columbia Alumni News lamented the lack of a properly defined color, and set about to investigate. The magazine noted that it used a shade of turquoise for its cover, that the University had adopted a shade called azure for the University Shield, and that on top of that "there are the variegated blues of programs, announcements, and invitations. There is no single Columbia blue."
In the same column the curator of Columbiana described the color as "the blue of the sky close to the horizon on a clear day," but confessed that "Oh, I just tear off the a piece of the cover of the University catalogue" when requesting the color from printers, and Columbia University Press's printing office simply stated that "why, we just ask for Columbia blue."[6]
The Athletics department tried to settle the issue in 1999 when it redesigned the lion logo, declaring that Columbia Blue was Pantone 292.[7] It's not clear whether in adopting Pantone 290 as Columbia Blue 10 years later the administration had been ignorant of the Athletics department's earlier effort, or wasn't satisfied with the earlier selection.[8]
It's worth noting that the historical range of Columbia Blue in its various uses has run from Cyan to Azure, to more subdued shades of Cornflower blue.
List of colors and uses
Because of the ways colors are defined, displaying them here can be difficult. For example, while the Visual Identity Guide identifies a specific color using the Pantone Matching System, the guide doesn't offer guidance on the preferred definitions for printing in Process Color (i.e. CMYK), or Spot Color, or web colors (which are defined by hex codes).[9][10]
Below are attempts to create a visualization of the varied palette of Columbia Blue in recent use. Where hex codes were not given, ColorPic was used in an attempt to identify the color in question.
"Official" Versions of Columbia Blue
| Color | Name | Source |
| Columbia Blue | Columbia Blue as defined by the Columbia College Visual Identity Guide as PMS 290 (Hex: A6B7C8) | |
| Columbia Blue | Columbia Blue as defined by the Athletics Department in 1999 as PMS 292 | |
| Columbia Light Blue | Columbia Light Blue as defined by the Athletics Department for Club Sports as PMS 291 (C: 27 M: 0 Y: 0 K: 0) |
Other Versions of Columbia Blue
| Color | Name | Source |
| Columbia Blue 3 | Previously registered by Columbia at trademarx.com | |
| Columbia Blue 2 | Previously registered by Columbia at trademarx.com | |
| Blue used on Columbia.edu from 1999-2003 | ||
| Blue used on subpages of Columbia.edu from 1996-1999 | ||
| Columbia blue | Wikipedia's definition of Columbia Blue, derived from a gif of the University Shield |
References
- ↑ It is unclear when precisely Philolexian and Peithologian first adopted light blue and white as society colors, but it can be inferred that it happened sometime before 1852.
- ↑ Van Amringe may have been referring to the July 17, 1873 regatta at Springfield, Massachusetts. According to the lengthy NY Times report of the event "The majority of the drivers [of vehicles travelling to the boat race site on the morning of the event] had ribbons on their horses to declare their favorites, and the big teams, that took twenty people at a time, were festooned with ribbons of every possible hue, including colors of the whole eleven competing colleges. If one might judge from the signs of the road, Yale runs very popular... The green of Dartmouth, and the purple and white of Amherst, and the blue and white of Columbia, and the maroon and white of the "Aggies," were also very prominent. So also was Harvard, but to a less degree, which seems surprising considering their popularity." A Victory for Yale, The New York Times, 17 July 1873. Though the results aren't clear, Columbia finished no higher than 7th.
- ↑ Letter to President Sovern, 2 May 1986.
- ↑ blue290 A Practical Guide to Columbia’s Standards of Visual Identity (May 2009)
- ↑ Columbia College Visual Identity Guide. The PDF Document Properties indicate that the guide was created in August 2008. Note that the College guide offered yet another contrasting blue option (Pantone 295), in addition to a more colorful palette generally.
- ↑ Columbia Alumni News Vol. XL No. 5, February 1949
- ↑ The Lion Enters Slick New Era, Columbia Spectator, Nov. 11, 1999
- ↑ Another wrinkle is that the Columbia University Club Sports Visual Identity Style Guide mandates that club sports teams use Pantone 291 as 'Columbia Light Blue.' Whether this was meant to distinguish club teams from varsity teams who were still using Pantone 292, as many of the guidelines in the guide are meant to do, or was part of the redefinition of the color is also unclear.
- ↑ By contrast, compare to Yale's extremely detailed guide on how to get "Yale Blue": | Yale University Identity Guidelines
- ↑ Ironically, the Guide does provide a Process Color definition of Pantone 286, a recommended royal blue secondary color.
