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eHub Interviews ColorBlender

Thanks to Kim Jensen, creator of ColorBlender for this email interview posted October 12, 2005.

eHub: What is your web application/service about?

ColorBlender: Basically, it’s about one of the most important components in visual appearance of websites; color. I find that many web designers lack the ability to choose colors that actually work together. The ColorBlender tool addresses this issue by automatically generating matching colors from just a single arbitrary base color.

eHub: Why did you start this project?

ColorBlender: The ColorBlender project was spawned from an older project of mine called ColorMatch 5K. As indicated by the name, the older project was made in less than 5 KB - that’s 5.120 bytes - and that’s really not an awful lot of space. :-) ColorMatch 5K won a Danish 5 KB web design compo back in the year 2001.

Then, about a year ago, I realised that ColorMatch had slowly worked itself to quite huge popularity - despite it being “IE-only” code. The massive amount of hits inspired me to make an even better tool.

To give you an idea of the popularity, ColorMatch received around 70,000 hits each month.

eHub: How much time do you devote to its growth?  Do you have a day job?

ColorBlender: I sure do have a day job - and also run a private freelance business on the side - so the time devoted to ColorBlender is my spare-spare time. However, I think the project has developed into something quite unique, and whenever I get some fresh ideas for additions or improvements, I don’t wait long to go at it.

eHub: How large is your team and what are your backgrounds?

ColorBlender: The ColorBlender project is a true solo work. The “team” is just me. My background is nearly 20 years of computer interest, an education as all-round application developer, 10+ years of working experience with such different subjects as EDI (electronic document interchange), 3D graphics and visualization, web development, database design, Windows programming, network administration, and much more.

eHub: What is your design philosophy?

ColorBlender: In short; “less is more”. To ellaborate a little more, I like things to be clean, attractive and “spacey”. A rule of thumb that I really like is; “remove any element that does not add any value to the final result”.

eHub: What technologies are you currently using?

ColorBlender: The ColorBlender project is run 95% via client-side JavaScript. Only the most data/processor-demanding functions are run on the webserver (PANTONE color matching).

eHub: If your project is live, what are the most requested features from your users/community?

ColorBlender: Actually, I don’t get too many feature requests for ColorBlender. I received numerous - mainly about compatibility - from ColorMatch and with the development of ColorBlender I managed to meet practically all requests and also address all compatibility issues.

eHub: Does your user base reside in a primary geographic location or is it distributed?

ColorBlender: From what I know, the users are scattered almost uniformly around the world. The current site is already prepared for localization, but with just a few languages besides English running at the moment.

eHub: Where do you see the project heading in the next 6 months?  The next 2 years?

ColorBlender: The original ColorMatch 5K has been running with great popularity for 5 years straight now. I hope to bring ColorBlender to the same level or above. I already have some new ideas that should help in reaching this goal. Wether the new features are ready in 2 or 6 months time I dare not say yet. It all depends ...

eHub: What is the greatest challenge to your success?

ColorBlender: Getting that one unique idea. No matter how narrow your idea may be, it can grow into something huge, as long as it is a good idea. On the contrary, no matter how many bells and whistles you add to a useless concept, it’ll still be useless.

eHub: What is the one thing you need to get to the next phase of the project?

ColorBlender: I don’t see this project as having multiple phases. Almost any project that I work on is more like a living organism that I pet and feed regularly, and thus it grows at a steady, constant pace.

eHub: Do you have a business model?  If so, what is it?

ColorBlender: I sure don’t! :-) Seriously, ColorBlender was initiated as a personal, “just-for-fun” project and the only income I get from it is what I can scrape from ad sales. Not really a business at this stage.

eHub: If you’re able to disclose this information, how much traffic or usage do you see on an average day?

ColorBlender: The ColorBlender site handles an average of 1000 visits per day. The older site, ColorMatch, still leads by getting almost double that. What it tells me, is that it’s a mere matter of time - combined with some marketing - before ColorBlender will reach the same.

eHub: What is the one thing you’re most proud of about the project?

ColorBlender: The fundamental idea, really. Back in 2001 when the idea sprung from my head, I had never before seen a tool with the same feature. Seeing today a lot of similar online tools working from the same idea - and in many cases working from my original code! - makes me kind of proud. I could feel somewhat ripped off as not all even cared to ask for permission, but that really is just the nature of the Internet - like it or not.

eHub: How would you describe the shift that’s occurring with the web right now to future generations?

ColorBlender: It’s very evident to me, that the web over the last few years - and in the years to come - has formed smaller or larger communities that attract people with shared interests. In that way, the Internet ressembles the “real world” more and more, but as the Internet also IS a major part of the “real world”, the distinction seems to fade rapidly.

Looking ahead I see the web shifting even more towards communities, collaboration and sharing of anything from knowledge to entertainment.

Actually, I think that “collaboration” might be the most defining word of the current drift. People join efforts across borders in creating open source applications; communities work together to find solutions to technical problems of all kinds; individuals develop small tools and publish on the web - often not for personal gain but as an appreciation of the common “collaboration”.

eHub: What site(s) do you visit everyday other than your own?

ColorBlender: Digg.com and Google Groups are the only two sites that I visit each day - and no, I don’t visit my own site :-)

eHub: How many hours of sleep do you get a night?

ColorBlender: I aim at getting at least 7 hours in bed each day. Less sleep leaves me too tired to be creative and efficient at work. :-)

Thanks to Kim Jensen, creator of ColorBlender for this email interview posted October 12, 2005.

Visit ColorBlender
Originally added to eHub on Sep 11, 05

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eHub Interviews is a series with the creators of Web 2.0 applications and services by Emily Chang, author of eHub, designer, and co-founder and principal of Ideacodes, a strategic web consultancy in San Francisco that she co-founded with Max Kiesler.

Also see eHub Interviews in Japanese at CNET Japan