IBM 360 Colors

[eldofever]

Good day gentlemen,

I'm trying to track down the colors that IBM offered on its 360 (and other) computer systems. My plan is to match these as best I can with interior house paint.

According to the IBM website, they state there were 5 colors offered for their panels. I can figure out Blue and Red, and know that Yellow was a custom color not included in the 5.

Is anyone familliar with the other colors? Any photos?

Thanks,
Cory

 

[Chuck(G)]

The red wasn't a real red as in Chinese red, but an orangish-red called "garnet rose". AFAIK, these were the standard IBM colors from that time:

#9060 Willow green
#9061 Garnet rose
#9062 Sunrise yellow
#9063 Classic blue
#9064 Charcoal brown
#9065 Pebble gray.

 

[eldofever]

This makes me wonder if these colors were the same as used on the Selectrics... all but the yellow (never seen a yellow Sel). I could compare "blues" to test the hypothesis. I have a few Selectrics in that color and an IBM 3741 to compare against. -Cory

The red wasn't a real red as in Chinese red, but an orangish-red called "garnet rose". AFAIK, these were the standard IBM colors from that time:

#9060 Willow green
#9061 Garnet rose
#9062 Sunrise yellow
#9063 Classic blue
#9064 Charcoal brown
#9065 Pebble gray.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Good question. I own a Selectric in willow green and have seen them in classic blue and pebble gray, so I think you may be on to something--but I think the Selectric colors were more limited and I've seen two shades of green on them.

At any rate, the IBM CE tools and parts list guide on Bitsavers shows the lacquer colors on PDF page 139. Too bad there's no color swatch samples.

 

[NeXT]

#9062 Sunrise yellow

I've seen this in person. Either with age or through someone being colorblind, it's more a sulphur yellow.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Well, it was the 60s and 70s, when good taste took a sabbatical. Orange shag carpeting, leisure suits, big wide neckties--oh yeah. Then in the 1980s, corporate wanted to look like the Georges Pompidou Center, with exposed plumbing painted bright primary colors, furniture in eye-searing bright primaries--oh, was that hot. I recall that someone proposed selling a line of our systems painted a bright orange. Fortunately, someone else who still had a shred of sanity had the sense to shoot that idea in the head before it had a chance to propagate.

 

[eldofever]

Oh my eyes!

Suppose this is the yellow on the right hand side disk unit?

Well, it was the 60s and 70s, when good taste took a sabbatical. Orange shag carpeting, leisure suits, big wide neckties--oh yeah. Then in the 1980s, corporate wanted to look like the Georges Pompidou Center, with exposed plumbing painted bright primary colors, furniture in eye-searing bright primaries--oh, was that hot. I recall that someone proposed selling a line of our systems painted a bright orange. Fortunately, someone else who still had a shred of sanity had the sense to shoot that idea in the head before it had a chance to propagate.