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  A common color language is key to avoiding communication breakdowns in the gem trade


February 13, 2012


A story is told of a failed advertising campaign in the 1970s. It involved the Swedish consumer electronic giant Electrolux, which sought to introduce its popular line of vacuum cleaners into the lucrative U.S. market. But an ad slogan that in other countries managed to emphasize its machine's superior performance - "Nothing Sucks Like an Electrolux" - meant something else completely to an American audience. The ads were dumped at considerable price.

The pitfalls of faulty communication caused by the absence of globally accepted and commonly understood terminology is not limited to advertising. In the airline industry a series of air accidents caused as a result of faulty understanding brought about strict language guidelines for communications between flight crews and air traffic controllers.

Faulty communication is also a phenomenon well-known in the gemstone trade, and one that not only has caused a great deal of heartache to many dealers and consumers, but also almost certainly has hampered the growth of the business over the years. Nowhere more was this evident than in the area of color.

The introduction in the early 1950s by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) of its D-to-Z diamond color scale was a monumental milestone in the history of gemstone color communication. But while it provided an efficient method for describing the color in those diamonds that fall in the narrow colorless and near colorless range, for fancy colored diamonds and the full range of colored gemstones it was still frustratingly difficult to accurately describe an exact color.

It may be overstating the case to declare that the better color communication system that existed in the diamond trade was mainly responsible for the massive disparity in growth between the diamond and colored gemstone sectors, but it certainly is fair to state that it was a factor. The jewelry business is inherently international, and any one piece of merchandise may include stones that were mined, traded and cut in different countries. While colorless and near colorless diamonds could be accurately ordered and supplied from long distance, in the colored diamond and gemstone trades few dealers were prepared to close a significant transaction without physically examining the stones.

There were some significant efforts to remedy the situation, such as the GIA color grading system which uses 31 different hues to describe the primary key colors of a gemstone. These are qualified by six degrees of saturation and 11 degrees of tone, although in practice only six are actually used.

Another noteworthy effort is the GemDialogue system, which was introduced by Howard Rubin in 1982. His system, which is portable, involves 21 transparent color charts showing 10 different saturation levels for each color. It is still widely used today. Howard sadly passed away this past January at age 86.

But while these preliminary methods made significant progress in breaking down the components of gemstone color, they required a not insignificant degree of knowledge to use and the results were difficult to reproduce, especially if the other side to a transaction did not possess the necessary equipment. The need for an accurate and simple-to-use system for communicating color remained, and actually became more urgent with the birth of the Internet and the subsequent emergence of online trading. For without an effective means of describing color, members of the colored gemstone trade were effectively left out of the e-commerce arena.

It was against this backdrop that Gemewizard® publicly launched its GemeSquare™ computerized color coding and communications system in 2006. It was the first system to digitize the full spectrum of gemstones' colors defined by the GIA, and in so doing it provided a simple and comprehensive solution to precise color communication.

As does the GIA, the GemeSquare™ identifies 31 master color hues. Each of these is recreated in 36 to 42 tone saturation combinations. Thus, 1,146 gemstone colors are available, and each is retrievable in 15 polished gemstone shapes. Consequently, the user is able to call up 17,190 images of gems, each having a different predetermined color. Gem colors are described using standard GIA terminology and GemeWizard®'s alphanumeric color code.

GemePro™, Gemewizard®'s top-of-the-line color communication system that is popular with gem labs and other professionals, expands upon the color defining capacity of the basic GemeSquare™ and includes 31 master color hues for colored gemstones and 27 main hues for fancy colored diamonds. In the GemePro™, each hue is sub-divided into up to five sub-hues each of which is again displayed in 57 to 60 tone saturation combinations, providing a total of more than 6,700 colors for each shape. Bundled together with the GemePro™ is the GemeSampler™, which is a module that analyzes a digital image of a colored gemstone or fancy colored diamond and automatically defines its color makeup.

Users of both systems may communicate color by sending specific images to their clients or suppliers via e-mail. Alternatively, if their clients or suppliers are themselves users of the Gemewizard® system, all they need do is supply the image numbers and their colleagues can reproduce the same images on their own computer screens.

The comprehensive range of high resolution images puts at the fingertips of users with a de facto Master Color Palette, which is not only important tool for their trade but physically would have been impossible to assemble. The GemePro™ and GemeSquare™ can be downloaded and are available live online. No equipment is required other than a standard computer with a high-resolution computer screen.

Gemewizard® has developed a common language for all those who handle colored gemstones and fancy colored diamonds. Its vocabulary is rich and extremely precise, and it is designed to avoid those breakdowns in communication that have plagued the industry since its establishment.

With accurate color communication a gem dealer can precisely match a set of fancy colored diamonds for a necklace, using multiple suppliers around the world. With dependable color communication the missing piece of a matching set of emerald earrings can be searched for and in found in minutes, on the opposite side of the globe. With credible color communication there is no reason to return a consignment of stones because the colors do not match, and there is no reason not to finalize a sale, simply because the other side cannot be physically present. With reliable color communication, online transactions are given a boost due to enhanced customer confidence based on WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). All this and more is achievable with GemePro™ and GemSquare™ and is a common thread through all Gemewizard®'s product offerings.

It was not for nothing that Gemewizard®, GemePro™ and GemeSquare™ are inexorably associated with the term "color communication."


For more information about the GemePro™ color communication system, please CLICK HERE.

For more information about the GemeSquare™ color communication system, please CLICK HERE.

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