# What pink means in branding

> What pink means in branding, a short history of the colour and brands known for it, with sources. Open it in a free palette tool.

Web page: https://davidewins.com/colours/pink

Swatch: #ec5f9e

Surveys in Europe and the United States link pink with sweet foods and drinks, and it is one of the few colours tied to a smell, roses. Pink with white suggests innocence. Today it is seen as a symbol of femininity, though before the second half of the 20th century it often signalled masculinity.

Survey words: sweetness, innocence, femininity.

[Build a palette from pink](https://davidewins.com/colours?base=ec5f9e)

## History

- The colour is named after the flowers called pinks. It was first used as a colour name in the late 17th century.
- Scholars link the decisive shift of pink towards femininity to the arrival of Barbie in 1959.

## Brands known for pink

- **Owens Corning**: Dyes its insulation pink and was the first company in the United States to trademark a colour. ([Wikipedia: Pink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink))
- **Schiaparelli**: Shocking pink was the signature colour of designer Elsa Schiaparelli. ([Wikipedia: Pink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink))
- **Deutsche Telekom**: Uses a magenta logo and has tried to stop other businesses using similar colours. ([Wikipedia: Magenta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magenta))

## Sources

- [Wikipedia: Pink](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink)
- [Wikipedia: Magenta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magenta)

The swatch is my own pick of pink, not an official value.