Comment by kelseyfrog

Color is the last vestige of ornamentation[1].

Modern design didn’t kill color. It put it on probation. Stripped of aesthetic authority, color now has to justify its existence or get cut. No more freedom to wander or express, it shows up for assigned tasks only: branding, signage, error states, traffic lights.

In the cult of "form follows function," color met the axe. We no longer trust it to create, only to comply. Expressiveness? No. Just signal. Never art. A century after Ornament and Crime, we put color on a PIP. Beauty must be functionalized.

1. https://www2.gwu.edu/~art/Temporary_SL/177/pdfs/Loos.pdf