Hanson Lab Solutions, who produce tables and other furniture for the scientific community, came to me with a simple request... "[We would] like to get a document created to showcase our standard paint color options that we can send to clients and then also display it on our website etc." Long story short, we want people to see what the various powder coatings look like.
The original idea was effectively a glorified paint chip like you'd find at Home Depot, but I saw an opportunity to do so much more... The first step I had was to get a vectorized table put together so I could get started... Then I could show the colors accurately, while retaining the ability to update the desk as the table grows and develops new products.
Sometimes you just need to trace over something and use the color picker to get your colors down. Some things are odd though, like the two table legs in the middle and how they don't line up. Similarly shadows aren't accounted for whatsoever so it'll feel visually wrong until those are added in.
Receiving this first draft, they were already excited but they had some feedback for me. The table above was based on an outdated version of the table. As such, some of the geometry needed to be shifted. Similarly the slots in the frame weren't correct for the up to date version of the workstation. These corrections are highlighted in the graphics below.
A few small iterations later and the table has better lighting and more accurate details. We have a functional desk, but now it comes down to the real reason we're here. Showcasing the colors of the powder coating.
The design of the vector table uses 5 shades of color, and the color palates export 6, so within that space I am able to use the select by "same fill color" option available within Adobe Illustrator to quickly colorize the desk, showcasing the colors of the table with a pleasant degree of accuracy.
Next I exported this PDF into Adobe Acrobat and made it interactive so that the viewer can simply click on the color they'd like to see.
