Owning Colour

Original version

BBC Radio 4

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Wayne Hemingway explores the artistic, commercial and cultural impact of colour.

Wayne Hemingway explores the artistic, commercial and cultural impact of colour in society and some of the intense legal battles that surround it.

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Owning Colour: Series 1: 1. Red

Series 1

1. Red

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Owning Colour, Series 1, 1. Red

4 Extra Debut. Wayne Hemingway explores the artistic, commercial and cultural impact of colour: Red. From 2017.

Designer Wayne Hemingway looks at five colours that have been at the centre of ownership and trademark battles, revealing the complex status of colours in our society - their artistic, commercial and cultural impact. 

He explores our response to colour - whether it's the red soles of designer shoes, the blue strip of a football team or the purple of a chocolate bar wrapper.

He interviews those involved in branding, advertising and IP, as well as the psychologists, scientists , colour gurus, artists and those creating the colours of tomorrow using Nanotechnology.

He starts with Red.   

In the 1980s, a company in America became the first to successfully trademark a colour. 

It was also the decade when Wayne Hemingway launched his fashion label Red or Dead, illustrated by a logo in a particular shade of red. Now he hopes scientists can re-create that colour in a paint laboratory in Slough, where they make trademarked colours such as Red Stallion and Roasted Red. 

Wayne explores the beginnings of colour ownership through a colour with two sides - love and passion or blood and aggression. 

Producer: Sara Parker

A Juniper production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast 4 in April 2017.

Owning Colour: Series 1

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Owning Colour

Series 1

1. Red

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 LW

About BBC Radio 4