Color experts since 1995

Our mission is to help companies understand the impact of color in every aspect of their business and apply it in their communication, design and innovation strategy. We coach companies to make the right color & design choices and create measurable results. It's time to take color seriously.

The Color Navigator Institute

With over 20 years of experience and an international team covering the most diverse color disciplines, we can say that we are true color addicts. The Color Research Center was founded in 1995 by Ing. Luc Van Renterghem. Together with his research team, Van Renterghem examined how our brain interacts with color. The patented Color Navigator System was born and the institute is considered an authority when it comes to color and neuropsychology.

Why is color so important?

In 85% of all buying decisions, color is the dominant factor. Color impacts your company results every minute. Any communication or advertisement of your brand, product range or project uses color in a certain way. Our brain will subconsciously pick-up your message based on the visual components. The question is: is the right message conveyed? All our expertise is used to choose the right colors and create compelling designs, brands, packaging and ads that sell.

Two thirds of everything we process and remember is visual: light and shapes. Colors are wavelengths of light that have an enormous influence on us. They have a permanent impact on our daily lives, our state of mind, performance, hormonal state, metabolism and so much more. And still, color is one of the most neglected and underappreciated aspects in design & development, as well as in most creative education programs in the world.

OUR WAY OF WORKING

The right colors sell. But the right color for the right consumer in the right country sells even better. That is how our Color Experts use the ground-breaking Color Navigator System to eliminate any doubt. By making a clear color profile based on your market data and target audience, we are able to predict and map which colors will work. Communicating those choices across divisions has never been easier.

Tailored dashboards

We can positively change the outcome of any project by developing a Company Color Framework and consistently implement it for a brand, interior or product range. Better yet, these improvements are measurable over time. Depending on your own expertise and needs you can use our services or system on demand and use your tailored color dashboard at any level and across all divisions. People remember color the most about a brand. Any communication, regardless of which color is used, will be seen as consistent and recognizable by the consumer. Brand guidelines will never be the same again!

Sustainable & measurable results

We love to work together with our clients as a long term partner for innovation, color, trends and design along the entire process. A long-term collaboration is the optimal way for us to secure real sustainable, commercial and operational results. Our Color & Design Studio and Timelabps_ teams can be deployed at any time of your innovation or design process.

We work for esteemed and large businesses as well as passionate and smaller companies all over the world. Together we've achieved spectacular commercial results. Let’s meet and work together so we can show you how color can change the future of your project or company in no time.

OUR EXPERTS

Our color experts come from different disciplines and have very diverse backgrounds. By working and researching projects for our customers for over 20 years, we have gathered priceless color knowledge and data that we can share in every new project. We work on projects from our offices and studios, but can also work closely with your teams as a colleague on a semi-permanent basis.

The institute closely works together with independent and international color experts as well as art institutes & universities, where the Color Navigator System is part of an educational or research program involving color. We invest heavily in offering support to the color and creative professionals of tomorrow. As a member of different international color associations, we believe sharing knowledge with other professionals is key!

COLOR NAVIGATOR SYSTEM

Are you ready to experience an unbeatable universal color system and learn more about measurable color choices on a scientific basis? Color Navigator is the first intelligent color system based on the DNA of a color, its properties and how our eyes and brain perceive and translate color. The ground-breaking and patented Color Navigator System is the result of over 20 years of research and development as well as an in-depth study on how color subconsciously influences us. Understanding color, communicating and working with color across industries, professionals and projects will never be the same again.

10.000 COLOR IDENTITIES

The Color Navigator System is comprised of 10.000 colors with a unique passport, revealing the type of a color or consumer, its style and the cultural or geographical relevance of its use. Choosing and combining the right colors for your design, specific customer or territory has never been easier and more precise.

MAPPING COLORS

Professionals worldwide use the Color Navigator system to develop distinct and recognizable color frameworks for their company, brand, products and collection, in order to create consistent experiences for consumers. Mapping colors towards your future goals is important. Customers will come back to you when their experience is fresh and innovative, but still feels familiar.

MATCHING COLORS

The groundbreaking CN Smart Match opens up a whole new array of possibilities to create impactful color combinations while working in a targeted, fast and cost-effective way. All Color Navigator colors are perfectly reproducible. They come with Lab, sRGB and CMYK values as well as our Color Navigator System ICC profile.

The innovative Color Navigator tools & software

The Color Navigator System has been translated in compelling tools, software and services that offer further support in making your own color choices. Learn to use them in our trainings and workshops. Our clients and users hail from a range of fields such as fashion, cosmetics, paint, home decor, architecture, healthcare, FMCG, automotive, graphic & product design, printing, packaging, advertising, media, etc.

THE BIG ONE

The Big One is the "must have" for every professional working with color. It is comprised of the 7.810 CN colors, the Smart Match navigation, a tool kit with profiling masks, a color finder as well as a comprehensive manual about color and the CN basics.

THE ACTIVE ONE

The Active One is comprised of 2.105 CN colors. It is without a doubt the smartest color fan deck in the world. Thanks to its compact size and ease of use, it is the perfect color consulting tool, even when you are on the move. A perfect match with our CN Color Catch Nano.

THE DIGITAL ONE

The Digital One is a state of the art web based platform that allows you to work with all 10.000 CN colors and other color banks of your choice. You can choose colors & create color palettes, profile colors, match & compare colors, import colors and access tutorials, moods boards for inspiration and how-to's.

Color workflow

Color Navigator is the backbone of a smart color framework as well as an efficient color workflow. It is important to treat color consistently in the total process and make sure the chosen color eventually will also be produced in the right way.

DEFINING COLOR

The first step is choosing color. By making a clear color profile for a company, a brand or a product line, we are able to define colors that will work and are based on the targeted consumer, the sales territory and what the color will be used for. We eliminate any doubt and boost time for creativity.

MEASURING & VIEWING COLOR

Color Navigator is providing solutions for different applications in color measuring & viewing. The multi-spectral imaging systems by Caddon, Barbieri and Colorix are all "best in class" measuring & calibration devices. Viewing color under calibrated lighting conditions is taken care by Caddon and Just Normlicht. Contact us for more info on these indispensable products.

REPRODUCING COLOR

Color Navigator System is integrated in leading design- and RIP software for the printing and other industries. Partnerships like Isocolor make it possible to accurately reproduce colors with pigments, dying formulas, etc. This way we guarantee your color choices will also be close to the final result.

Our team

We are Color Navigator, color addicts since 1995. We are passionate about color, brands and people. We love what we do and want to make the world more colorful, sustainable and fun! We hope we inspired you to get in touch and meet our team members so we can work together, exchange ideas or for you to become part of the Color Navigator Journey one way or another.