12

As the country of origin and thus home to the pioneers of color consulting, the United States gave birth to another further development of the 4 color type system: the so-called 12 color type system. This system has since spread beyond the United States and now enjoys great popularity all around the world. Many of our products can be used for 12 color type consultations.

This system is based on the three dimensions of brightness, temperature and saturation according to Munsell, and is also known as the flow system: Spring flows into Summer, Summer into Winter, and so on.

However, this system doesn’t seem to have a uniform structure. Confusion arises from several variants and alternatives, and the different names used for one and the same color family.

Of course overlaps exist between color families – “black” occurs in more than one color type, for example. Nevertheless, each color family has its own clearly-defined spectrum of colors.

In order to maintain clarity and prevent the Flow system becoming a puzzling mixture, we use the same basic classification system that we apply to the 9 color type system from Beatrix Lid:

Brightness: Light, medium and dark;
Temperature: Warm, warm / cold and cold;
Saturation: Clear, medium and subdued.

In the 12 color system, this is only slightly more finely graduated. The softest and the most vibrant color families lie on the diagonals between Autumn and Spring and Summer and Winter. These diagonals now contain two color families instead of only one, resulting in a total of 12 color families.

This makes the flow system more structured, and easier to understand and use. If this classification system is missing, color consultations are arbitrary. Poor consultations are bound to occur – to the detriment of the client.

Interested in further training on using a differentiated color system? More information can be found here.

12 types color typology poster