Caleo Colors for Kids

What is your company’s and hence your work’s main focus?

We sell sustainable natural nursery paints that we mix in our store in Dresden, Germany. To help parents design a healthy children’s room, we have collections in child-friendly fantasy worlds with self-written stories for each color shade. These collections help parents and children to plan harmonious color shades for the children’s room.

How long have you used Datacolor’s ColorReader?

We have been using ColorReader to create our nursery collections since 2020.

What are the advantages of using ColorReader in your daily work?

Thanks to ColorReader, we can quickly and easily scan our colors to determine the appropriate digital color codes in order to display them correctly in our online store, so that customers have a realistic representation of the product colors.

Has the investment in ColorReader already paid off for you?

Yes, we use it for each new collection and want to start offering the product to customers in our store.

Can you describe a project or your daily work routine in which you use ColorReader?

When creating a new color collection, we start with a creative brainstorming, and then we use the app to put together colors that would be a fit based on the theme of the collection. Based on these specifications, we mix them with our clay colors to see how they look in real life. If we like the resulting shades, we scan them again to determine the final tone based on the ingredients used to get the corresponding color codes for display in the online store or for print materials. Only then are we able display and offer our colors in the online store.

How do you plan to use ColorReader with your customers?

In addition to our Caleo collections, we plan to offer the color scan as a service for our customers. For example, if they want to match the wall color to the child’s favorite color, existing curtains or carpet, we can provide them the exact tone using the ColorReader and mix the color directly on site.

Which features of ColorReader do you usually use?

We use it to determine the color itself and we use the app to find coherent color combinations.

Which function of the ColorReader are you particularly fond of?

We are thrilled that we can add individual names to the selected shades and collections directly in the app. This is the best way for us to distinguish between them and assign them to a certain color collection. Then there is no confusion in the work process, even with similar color tones.
It is great that the scanned color takes up the entire left part of the screen for color matching. This helps finding the best possible matches.
When viewing the color in the history or saved values, HEX, RGB and CMYK are displayed without scrolling. This saves us time.
For consumers, architects or painters, it is certainly helpful that, in addition to RAL other color codes by several manufacturers are also represented.

Can you tell us another area of use application outside of your work that comes to mind?

The device is useful for all matters related to decorating rooms. It can be used to match not only wall colors, but also murals, carpets, floors or textiles. For example, a colleague used it to find harmonious color combinations for her vacation home.

What improvements would you like to see for the product?

The app could be a bit more user friendly. I would expect to find my devices with name, type, user manual and troubleshooting help if I tap on “Device”. It is not clear to me why I have to register the device and where the access code can be found. A picture or more information would be useful.
Access to the location services is requested, but it is not clear to me what for, since I have already set Europe as the location when registering. What influence do the location services have on scanning?
The scanned colors don’t always seem very appropriate to me. They are often much darker than in the original. With the suggested matches, a similarity is hardly recognizable. Especially for reddish colors it works less good. It would be nice if more than 3 similar colors were displayed when selecting all color swatches to find the perfect one.
When I recall the scans from the history again, the closest color matches should also be displayed again.
It would be nice to have the possibility to attach a strap (for wrist or neck) to prevent it from falling. It would also be good if the side with the charging port also had a lid so that it does not get dirty.