They are all BenM colors, just renamed and shuffled into a new order.

They're all pre-existing BM colors? That's crazy. (But crazy like a fox!) BM will pump up a lot of enthusiasm (witness Buddy's response) without having to actually create something new. Still, I'm sure BM invested a fair amount of funds into reshuffling and organizing and naming another deck of exisiting colors! Seems they're grabbing at straws to draw in business. I love Benjamin Moore Paint, but I'm not impressed with this move.

I do assume the Color Stories deck presents an entirely new and different palette!

Yes, that is what the BM man said as well. He said that is always the way it works. I think what got me most excited was seeing the color combinations I like all on one folder. Sounds like a bonus payday for Darryl Carter! I'm not usually that gullible, guess I just thought it would solve my paint color struggles. Lesson learned.

Buddy, you're not gullible. You were drawn by the particular combinations offered on the new deck. If that presentation helped you, I think that's only a good thing.

I didn't know who DC was. I had to Google. So, he's a designer, and a well-respected one! I like the pics of his work...very classic and understated. He certainly uses a lot of white, and very washed out colors that look like white with a hint of tint. I like the way he uses a lot of antiques and traditional furnishings and accessories, but the rooms feel fresh, clean and current.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mr. Carter

A truly new paint color is rare. Been that way for 50 years or more. Many new riffs but creating color from scratch doesn't happen very often.

For the most part, they all just shuffle the decks, deal 'em in different order, new labels, new packages, new collateral.

What's sad is they, the paint companies, have to reach down their own consumer food chain to designers like D. Carter just to do something as simple as reshuffle the decks. Credibility is grossly diluted when paint depends on its top consumer sector to lend it a scrap of authority. What that says is they don't have anything to offer beyond the limited color scope of a designer, there's no intrinsic color authority to use to command, drive and inform the market.

D. Carter is nothing special. Don't mean any of this in a mean way -- at all -- and it's not really about D. Carter any way. It's more encompassing. The D. Carter collection is the same old story from paint companies that are IMO completely devoid of genuine, bona fide, applicable to the built environment color expertise. I recently had an exchange with a paint company about HEX codes. I was appalled at the stupidity of the responses. I don't know why I found it so appalling. I should know better by now and nothing should be shocking or surprising. But I guess it was how the response demonstrated the complete lack of basic, fundamental color knowledge that disgusted me. Gobsmacked by how these people get jobs (at whatever company) working in some form with color, keep jobs, are handed paychecks.

And the situation will remain as is because marketing people and mostly men are the ones who make the decisions. Male being relevant as in male vs. female and how differently from women men see, intuit, and understand color.

A few of them have started to grasp that paint might be what they're selling but it's not what the consumer is buying. Consumers, mostly women, buy COLOR. Not paint. So, they're trying to find a way to package paint as color. And they think that interior designers or some brave soul who manged to publish a book are the ones who can help them sell color when the truth of the matter is interior designers/decorators lack color knowledge as much as if not more than those who work in paint world. Having an eye for color, an ability to create wonderful things with color is not an indicator of color knowledge and it absolutely does not equate to color expertise.

It's the blind leading the blind (so to speak). Most of the time I find it entertaining and it fascinates me to watch from the sidelines as they spin in it. Other times when I need to get sh1t done, and they hold some of the key components I want and need, it annoys me no end. I think this is where I'm suppose to say but I digress.

FC - love it! While not a color expert I can totally relate on other levels!

Well, I might be a color expert but I'm right there on the outskirts with everyone else just trying to carve out a color journey that makes sense and to call my own.

Funcolors, I appreciate your detailed explanation of the biz too! Maybe Ben Moore should affiliate with a "color consultant" rather than a designer, if they want to have an in-house resource and expert.

As you know better than anyone, customers, buyers of paint, live most of the time feeling dazed and confused by the array of colors offered. I'm certainly not in the biz, but I know this, because everytime I go in the paint store, I see women scanning the swatches looking frustrated and slightly nauseous. They aren't happy. They plod on, via trial and error, and decide they "hate" picking out paint colors!

Maybe it would it be wise for BM to step up and provide real assistance and guidance if they want to sell more product and have happy customers.