Who we are
For nearly 20 years now Colourmart has been working with Color Solutions International (CSI) to deliver to CSI's customers the world class online systems they need to manage their supply chain color processes. This work continues, with new customers and new projects being added all the time, but Colourmart also offers such systems direct to anyone who wishes to manage their existing color libraries, new and ongoing palettes, lab dip submissions, bulk production, customer color search, or indeed any other part of their color flows, better than they do it now (which usually means better than with a collection of spreadsheets and emails...) ... could that be you?
Where can we help?
In general, we can assist with any process flow where accurately measured or matched color is a key element, but the systems we have built so far tend to include one or more of the following modules...
- Library Rationalisation
- Palette Management
- Lab dip submissions to bulk production
- Color Search
- PLM Systems
Do you have dozens of variations of "navy" already in your historical palettes but still you add new ones each season? Have you noticed how much extra time and money a slightly different new one costs? (our guess is 2-3 months and about $5,000 each).. Using our library rationalisation tools you can just upload the color data for an almost infinite library or libraries (certainly tens of thousands of colors), then get reports showing which colors are closest to which others (under your choice of illuminants), which are named the same but aren't... even see in an interactive 3D plot which color sectors you haven't covered lately... and because it is a web (and/or app) based tool any colorist or designer in your organisation, anywhere in the world, can upload data and check the global results..
One existing user organisation has combined this module with color search and simply asked that before any designer adds a new color they please check all existing ones... the savings have been very significant already and are still growing... screenshots
How do you turn a collection of color inspirations into a proper seasonal palette, with all attached extra data, sub groups, divisional splits and so on, accessible by everyone who needs it but editable only by those who should... viewable on a browser or tablet but also downloadable as spreadsheet format, or photoshop, or printable as a pdf.. even connected directly into a PLM system..
Use our palette management modules is how.. as with all our systems they can be individually tailored but we have enough of these in use at some of the world's biggest garment specifiers to know that we almost always need drag and drop of colors from existing libraries and from previous palettes to the new one, color search of any and all libraries via a multitude of color entry methods (even a smartphone / tablet camera app) to cover the creative side but also strong additional data management tools to make sure everything that is required to be known and tracked about a color's history, dye performance, cross-division links... anything... is right there and under control..
We include special color / dye-to-match logging and tracking (for example if a search of existing libraries can not match an inspiration closely enough, a dye-to-match is automatically created)...
AND as with all of our systems access to each section can be user and user-role controlled in customisable ways, with complete logging of who changed what when PLUS configurable emails to notify any and all users as often as they wish in as much or as little detail as they would like about hourly/daily/by palette/by season progress...
You would be pleasantly surprised by how many happy colorists are truly managing their palettes already in exactly this way... screenshots
Whether you just want to keep track of visual lab dip decisions in a way that keeps people immediately and consistently informed or whether you prefer truly digital color approval based on spectro measurements (or whether you are somewhere in the middle, like most people) our colorflow modules have it covered.. in whichever flow pattern you wish (should your suppliers initiate submits against their designated palette colors, for example, or do you want to create a "job" and have them reply? Is there a buying house in the middle of all this?)... using your chosen illuminants and other digital parameters our systems let you see reflectance curves, color swatches, digital color difference numbers, 3d color difference plots and so on as soon as a submit is entered... perhaps more important they keep track of every change and comment, even if you have to loop back to an earlier submit round for a "commercial" decision...
Once you move from lab dip to bulk the same system can collect all the color and other data you wish about each and every bulk piece...
Which will feed into customisable reports that track and summarise response times and color quality by supplier, color, season, fabric type... you name it... reports also highlight late lab dips or bulks, we can even attach a "chat thread" to each job..
AND AGAIN TO REPEAT OURSELVES, as with all of our systems access to each section can be user and user-role controlled in customisable ways, with complete logging of who changed what when PLUS configurable emails to notify any and all users as often as they wish in as much or as little detail as they would like about hourly/daily/by palette/by season progress... users can even pick which language they see on screen or get emails in...
Imagine your whole lab dip status summarised on your tablet... In one of our colorflow customers all reports to management are exported to excel straight from the system, or progress can be read directly into the PLM system... screenshots
This module is included in almost all the others, but also powerful in its own right... it is pretty much how what it says on the can... the user inputs a color target in some way, and the system presents them with the closest colors from the color libraries searched... but the target can be input precisely as reflectance data or more vaguely with an on screen color mixer, by uploading a picture, even by pointing our smartphone app at something... or of course using rgb numbers, or Lab, or hsv... and some customers take it further, feeding the choices through into their won ecommerce websites...
One large trim supplier has a multi layering of roles, so customers search a local color library, agents search a regional color library and HQ searches the world... screenshots
Our systems can talk to most existing PLM systems (via web services / SOAP). But if you don't already use PLM and just want to put all your product development processes in order and online, please ask us, we have already done that for a few people... we will never build mega PLM systmes like some, but then our prices aren't mega either... screenshots
Our Charges
We rent our systems, on a block of users per year basis, and prices start at only a few thousand dollars per year. We believe that process flow systems will always need tweaking and modification to stay relevant, and the rental model allows us to include such work in the annual fee (yes, changes and upgrades really are free, at least within reason...)
One last thing...
(yes we also run the yarn business at colourmart.com... it came out of a building a color system for a cashmere spinner, and is now a very successful little business in its own right... but it doesn't build color systems 
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