{"id":895,"date":"2019-12-01T18:56:38","date_gmt":"2019-12-01T18:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianfaur.com\/NewSite\/?page_id=895"},"modified":"2026-07-07T14:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:36:27","slug":"swatches-board-game","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.christianfaur.com\/NewSite\/swatches-board-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Swatches: Board Game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Swatches is now a free iPad app \u2014 the physical edition is next. Sign up below to help make it happen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Swatches Board Game<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n