Color Impact

Conferences and symposiums




Save the Date: June 24, 2026  12:00pm - 5:00pm EDT

Registration opens in May
Schedule subject to change

Featuring presenters from a range of fields and practices,
speaking on how they define color in their daily workflow.
Q&A to follow each session

We will wrap up the day with Colorful Connections,
an opportunity to network with ISCC members and Symposium attendees.


KEYNOTE: Chasing Rainbows: The ISCC, Problem 2, and the Attempt to Define Colors

In 1931, people who lived and worked in color--researchers, scientists, manufacturers, fashion forecasters, academics, and a few government wonks for good measure--gathered in New York City with one goal in mind: to come up with a commonsense, plain English way to describe colors. This group (the Inter-Society Color Council) thought this task (called "Problem 2") would be a simple one; in truth, the solution to Problem 2 would take nearly 50 years to complete, and raised some sticky wickets along the way that were never entirely solved. What are the basic color terms, and why should "olive" be one? How colorimetrically "slightly" is "slightly redder"? Why are there so many damned "aquas" in this commercial color world, and why aren't any of them actually aqua? Join Kory Stamper on a romp through the history of the ISCC, the problems of Problem 2, and the story of how the ISCC and the National Bureau of Standards joined forces to create one of the most user-friendly and commonsense color designation systems in modern America that nonetheless went exactly nowhere. 

Kory Stamper is an author and lexicographer who has spent near 30 years thinking (too deeply) about how to define the words that define us. In her 20 years as an editor at Merriam-Webster, she defined everything from "blue plate special" to "god" and answered dictionary user questions on everything from what color "nude" really is to why it's "toothpaste" and not "teethpaste." She has written about her time as a dictionary writer in Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries (2017, Pantheon). Her moderate obsession with color terms and color names began during her time at Merriam-Webster, and led her through the ISCC archives, the Merriam-Webster vault, several strangers' homes, and ultimately to her second nonfiction book, True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest to Define Color—from Azure to Zinc Pink (2026, Knopf). Her writing on language and color has been called "uproarious" (Publisher's Weekly) and "irreverent" (Kirkus Reviews), which she takes to be a great compliment. In what passes as her spare time, she does language revitalization work for the Miami Nation of Indiana, where she is currently puzzling over how to best define the Miami color term that refers to some blues and some greens (but not all blues nor all greens).



Industry Presentation - The Language of Marketing
Sue Kim, Director of Color Marketing, Sherwin-Williams 

Sue Kim has spent over two decades shaping how consumers experience and understand color. As the long-time forecaster of 
Valspar’s annual color trends, she is passionate about viewing color through evolving lifestyle and cultural landscapes to create livable, meaningful palettes. Her role also includes crafting engaging retail color experiences and designing color at the intersection of art and science.




Science Presentation - A Brief History of CIELab
Ann Laidlaw, ACL Color Consulting, LLC

Ann Laidlaw worked in industrial color communication and management during her career with SheLyn, GretagMacbeth, X-Rite, and as an independent consultant. Her work centered on global supply chains, mostly in the textiles and apparel industries. She is a recipient of the ISCC Nickerson Service Award, the AATCC Chapin Award, and the AATCC Education Award. She served on the boards of ISCC, AATCC, and CORM. She is now retired in central Georgia, and enjoys a life-long hobby of sewing.




Education Presentation – Colour Literacy in the 21st Century
Luanne Stovall, University of Texas at Austin

Luanne Stovall, MFA, Tufts University, is an artist, color theorist, and lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin. She attended Miami University, New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting Sculpture, NYC; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine; and The University of Texas. Luanne is a member of the Colour Literacy Project Core Team, Host of the Colour Literacy Forums, and team lead for ISCC Fluorescent Fridays. She has taught color courses and workshops in many locations including The Contemporary Austin, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Wellesley College, and MIT Sloan School of Business. 

Her paintings and works on paper are in many collections, including the Art Museum of South Texas; El Paso Museum of Art; Blanton Museum, Austin, TX; Moakley Cancer Care Center, Boston; and the Estee Lauder Collection.



Design Presentation 
Sandra Sampson, Vital Color™ by Simple Modern Style

Sandra Sampson is the founder of Vital Color™ by Simple Modern Style, a multi-disciplinary color design and graphic design studio. With an insatiable thirst for creative exploration, she transforms consumer preferences,color trends, and market research into captivating color palettes and design that successfully engage target markets across industries.

During her over twenty-year tenure with the Color Marketing Group® (CMG), Sandra has served as Board Member, Executive Committee Member, VP of PR and Communications, and Immediate Past VP of Education.

Most recently, Sandra has volunteered on the Education and CMG Summit Planning Committees and was a speaker at the 2025 International Summit - Chromatic Connections, ColorContext Workshop.

Sandra holds a BFA from Art Center College of Design and completed advanced color design studies at the Eiseman Center for Color Information & Training. She serves as a Board Member of the Inter-Society Color Council and is a past Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA).

When not in her studio, Sandra enjoys reading about color and design, sailing along the Southern California coast, and playing with Kitt, her Alaskan Malamute.


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