Colors (magazine)

{{Short description|Italian magazine}} {{About|the quarterly magazine||Color (disambiguation)}} {{More citations needed|date=November 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox magazine | title = Colors | image_file = Colors Magazine logo.png | image_size =  | image_alt = | image_caption = | editor = | editor_title = | previous_editor = | staff_writer = | photographer = | category = | frequency = Quarterly | circulation = | publisher = | founder = | founded = 1991 | firstdate = {{Start date and age|df=y|1991|7|1}} | finaldate = 2014 | company = [[Benetton Group]] | country = Italy | based = [[Treviso]] | language = English, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Serbian, Croatian | website = {{URL|www.colorsmagazine.com}} | issn = 1121-824X | oclc = }}

'''''Colors''''' (stylised as '''''COLORS''''') was a quarterly print magazine about 'the rest of the world' funded and published by the Italian [[Benetton Group|Benetton clothing company]].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2023-05-15|title=Colors Magazine - Benetton Group|url=https://www.benettongroup.com/en/the-group/comunication/colors-magazine/|website=www.benettongroup.com}}</ref> Founded in 1991 "as a way of communicating the intelligence of the Benetton brand to an extremely sophisticated consumer",<ref name="theguardian">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/may/27/mondaymediasection4|title=The story of Benetton's Colors magazine|last=Armstrong|first=Stephen|date=2002-05-27|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-03-03|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> it was published worldwide in multiple bilingual editions. Every issue of the magazine took a single theme and covers it from an international perspective. It was produced at the [[Fabrica research centre]] in Treviso, Italy.

==History== [[Tibor Kalman]], [[Oliviero Toscani]] and [[Karrie Jacobs]]<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Benetton: Colors # 1 |url=https://www.si.edu/object/benetton-colors-1%3Achndm_1993-151-106 |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=[[Smithsonian Institution]]}}</ref> created the magazine in 1991,<ref name="theguardian"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Colors Magazine |url=https://www.benettongroup.com/it/il-gruppo/comunicazione/colors-magazine/ |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=[[Benetton Group]] |language=it}}</ref> and it was produced at Kalman's design studio, M&Co, in New York City until 1993, when the magazine operations moved to Rome, followed by Paris in 1995, and then Treviso, Italy, in 1997. Since the early 1990s, ''Colors'' has maintained a global, humanistic outlook in its coverage of issues from AIDS to shopping; from 2001 onward, it became totally serious, and the only element that remains from its inception is the use of [[photo-journalism]]. From Issue 81 in 2011, ''Colors'' has been published in the form of guides to major issues for its ongoing ''Survival Guides'' series.

== Awards and recognition == The complete series of ''Colors'' issues was included in the ''25/25'' exhibition at the [[Design Museum]], London (29 March - 22 June 2007), which featured the 25 most influential design objects of the past 25 years. ''[[Good Worldwide|Good Magazine]],'' an American bi-monthly cultural and lifestyle publication, included the first thirteen issues under Kalman’s editorship in the ranking of the 51 best magazines of all time. ''[[La Vanguardia]]'', a Spanish daily, described it as one of the trendiest cultural magazines on the world scene. ''Colors'' was featured within ''Inside the Great Magazines'', a Canadian documentary trilogy exploring the evolution of magazines from their European origins to their current popularity and the powerful influence they have on our social, political and cultural identities. Issue 76 of ''Colors'' won first prize in the Arts and Entertainment Stories category of the 2010 [[World Press Photo]] Competition (with the reportage ''Rainbowland'' by [[Kitra Cahana]]) and also gained a Merit at the 89th Art Director’s Club Awards. Issue 79 was awarded the Silver Prize in the Editorial Design category at the 90th Art Director’s Club Awards.

== Music == The Colors Music compilations ''Nordic'', ''Cumbia'', ''Ottomanic'', ''Rio Funk'' and ''Inner Asian Pop'' were produced in co-operation with [[Irma Records]], a Sony Music international label.

== Books == ''Colors'' published the books ''1000 Extraordinary Objects'', ''1000 Signs'' and ''Colors Extraordinary Records'' with [[Taschen]], and the books ''Hunger'' and ''Yellow Pages'' with [[Skira Editore]]. ''Faces'' and ''Violence'' were both published as part of the ColorsNotebook series by [[Birkhäuser]]. ''Colors'' also produced ''Africa Mon Amour'', a 22-page guide to the 53 countries of Africa, as a supplement to the Autumn 2010 issue of the American ''[[Good Worldwide|Good Magazine]]''.

== Exhibitions == ''Colors'' has held exhibitions in Florence, Rome, Naples, London, Istanbul, Madrid, Barcelona, Maastricht, Budapest, San Francisco, Luxembourg, Santiago, Mexico City, Bogotá, Shanghai and Sydney.{{Citation needed|date=November 2015}}

== Documentaries == ''Colors'' documentaries focus on major diversity-based themes. In collaboration with RSI Swiss Television, ''Colors'' produced a trilogy of documentaries that explore the most forbidding places in the world: ''Aral, Fishing in an Invisible Sea''; ''Solitude at the End of the World''; and ''Hunters Since the Beginning of Time''.

''Aral, Fishing in an Invisible Sea'' portrays the life of the last men left fishing the Aral Sea and won the Best Italian Documentary Prize at the [[Turin Film Festival]] 2004. ''Solitude at the End of the World'', set in Tierra del Fuego, Patagonia, won the Special Jury Prize at the [[Festival de Cine Independente de Buenos Aires]] 2006; and ''Hunters Since the Beginning of Time'', a portrait of whale hunters along the coast of the Bering Sea, was awarded the Best Documentary Prize at [[FICCO Festival de Cine Contemporaneo de Mexico]] 2008. ''Colors'' also produced the documentary ''Rocinha, Daylight of a Favela'', about slum outside Rio de Janeiro populated by hundreds of thousands of people trying to lead normal lives. ''Rocinha'' later became a book of short stories by young writers, published by [[Mondadori]].

==See also== * [[List of magazines in Italy]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{Official website|www.colorsmagazine.com}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colors}} [[Category:1991 establishments in Italy]] [[Category:Benetton Group]] [[Category:Defunct English-language magazines]] [[Category:Defunct Italian-language magazines]] [[Category:Magazines established in 1991]] [[Category:Defunct magazines published in Paris]] [[Category:Magazines published in Rome]] [[Category:Mass media in Treviso]] [[Category:Quarterly magazines published in Italy]] [[Category:Defunct Spanish-language magazines]] [[Category:Magazines disestablished in 2014]] [[Category:Defunct magazines published in Italy]]