Swatches: Board Game

Swatches Board Game

Swatches began ten years ago with a handful of free paint chips from a hardware store. I had spent a long time working with color in my studio, and one day I found myself asking a simple question. What if matching color itself could be the game?

I wanted to make something that rewarded a good eye, and that was just as interesting for the people who struggle to match color as for the people who find it easy. And I wanted it to be beautiful. Not decorated, but genuinely arresting. A board that would stop you as you walked past the table.

The first version was crude, laid out from swatches I pulled off the rack at the store. But the idea held, so I set about building it properly. I hand-painted every tile and made a series of ten limited-edition games. Each one is a fully playable board, and when it is not in play it hangs on the wall as a painting. The colors are exact. There are fifty of them, each appearing twice. Lisa Alberico gave every color its fun and quirky name. This game was always intended to be as much a work of design as it was a game.

The rules took years to settle on. We ran many play sessions, and every one of them taught me something. That is where the wild cards came from, where the colors on the board were adjusted so they could be told apart under real light, and where the game found its pace, a full match in about ten minutes. I kept pushing the rules to be more challenging without ever letting a game run long.

The part I am most fond of is a small one. To test whether a card in your hand truly matches a tile, you have to reveal it, and once you do, everyone at the table has seen what you were holding. You give up the secret of your own hand in order to check your own eye. I think it quietly makes people better at seeing color, and it turns every play into a small risk taken in the open.

For years I have wanted to make this game real for everyone, and not only for the ten people who own an original. It has been harder than it should be. I have run print test after print test, and conventional CMYK card printing can not reproduce the exact colors needed for this game. The results come back close, but close is not true to the paint chip the whole game is built on. What I am still looking for is a high-definition manufacturer with a wider range of inks, one that can reproduce these fifty colors honestly.

The app is my way through. It let me put Swatches into as many hands as possible without compromising the color, because on a screen every value can be exact. You can play against the computer at a range of difficulties, or play a friend live, and it carries the whole game with it: the board, the tokens, the sounds recorded from the real set, and a narrated tutorial that teaches it in a few short lessons. It is my first app, and it exists so the game can finally be shared.

My real hope, though, is still the physical game. If enough people find Swatches worth playing, I can bring the printed edition to life through a Kickstarter. The goal is simple. One thousand people. If a thousand of you want to own it, I can have it made. If you have enjoyed the game, or you simply believe a game like this belongs on a table and not only a screen, add your name below. That is how this one gets built.

Created and designed by Christian Faur.
Color names by Lisa Alberico.