Keith Hoover - Textile Consultant

LEDSimulator - The Color Box

In retail, color is everything. It not only defines the product but creates a first impression of the selling space to the customer. That is why color exploration is a key part of the design development process – it enables a designer to attach something tangible to what is in the “mind’s eye.” However, color is a product attribute, so the texture of the material used in the product impacts its aesthetic properties. Significant texture alters the “Total Appearance” of a color in ways that cannot be foreseen with conventional color references. In fact, all commercially available color references use smooth substrates to minimize the impact of texture and promote their “pure color.” A better color tool that supports the Total Appearance model is needed to explore, specify, and manufacture color. That tool is LEDSimulator, a comprehensive color system composed of three components: 1) color rendering software, 2) a standard viewing environment, and 3) advanced LED light modeling technology. These components work together enabling designers to consider Total Appearance – the impact of texture on color – when creating color palettes.

Over the past 60 years, digitalization has advanced color management in the apparel industry, from the introduction of PC’s and software to drive fast recipe prediction and correction to the exchange of spectral data used in improved color difference calculations. All these innovations have laid the foundation for commercial color management, taking months out the of color development process.

Texture has remained an obstacle. Although Total Appearance has been objectively described and understood, the effect of texture has precluded 20% of fabrics used in apparel from these digital processes. But that is changing. LEDSimulator uses advances in LED technology, novel calculations, and a user-friendly set-up to objectively manage Total Appearance. Textured fabric can finally qualify for digital assessment and approval.

Bio

Keith Hoover is a founding partner of Black Swan Textiles, a software and consulting company specializing in color and fabric digitization for the apparel and textile industries. He started his career as an illustrator for apparel brands such as Brooks Brothers, subsequently moving into product development. He devised digital color management programs for Ralph Lauren, Fruit of the Loom, Target, Lands' End, JCPenney, and Under Armour. At Under Armour, Hoover championed the UA Lighthouse, driving digitalization and advanced manufacturing processes to develop local-for-local sourcing. He has worked hands-on in mills in China, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Korea, Italy, the US, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Hoover is a frequent presenter to leading textile-facing organizations, including AATCC, TechTextil, EURATEX, ISCC, PI-Apparel, WTiN, AIChE, SDC, STRC, AIC, and STA. Black Swan Textiles is a member of Advance Robotics for Manufacturing (ARM).

The Inter-Society Color Council advances the knowledge of color as it relates to art, science, industry and design.
Each of these fields enriches the others, furthering the general objective of color education.