AOCDS tartan

[OC Richard]

I've begun playing with a service band, the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs Pipe Band.

Their tartan is beautiful, to me. From a distance it seems mostly olive green with orange stripes, but a closer look revealed old gold, sky blue, and teal in addition to the muted olive, black, and a colour I don't know how to name, somewhere between orange and fuchsia.



No matter what light I used for taking the photos (full sun, open shade) or how I adjusted the colours in the computer I couldn't get the colours right. What shows up as yellow should be Old Gold, and the teal doesn't look as teal as it does in person.

The fabric was woven by Lochcarron, 16oz. I'm told that the tartan was designed by Andrew Ross with input from members of the AOCDS.

Here's the Drum Major, Craig Stevens, a retired Sheriff.

[Shinenotburn]

Looks like a Pantone 16-1546 to me. (Living Coral)

It is a very nice looking tartan and the kilt looks great pleated to the line like it is.

[OC Richard]

I'll look up the Pantone, thanks!

I don't have the books though.

EDIT: I just used one of those colour generator things and I came up with
r255
g92
b92

which is very close to Living Coral
r255
g111
b97

though of course it might just be the way my monitor looks.

Definitely really close to that.

I wonder if Lochcarron had to dye it. I think I did see a tartan with a coral like that, I can't remember which tartan.

[Shinenotburn]

[QUOTE=OC Richard;1388460]I'll look up the Pantone, thanks!

I don't have the books though.

EDIT: I just used one of those colour generator things and I came up with
r255
g92
b92

which is very close to Living Coral
r255
g111
b97


The Ancient red Gordon looks like it might use that colour. It certainly works nicely off that sage green colour in your band's kilt.

[figheadair]

Richard, are you talking about the colour one which the Light Blue is Centred? If so, it looks like orange on my screen. I would not call it any shade of pink. Fuchsia is a term best avoid in terms of tartan colour terminology in my view as it, magenta (the same shade), crimson, wine, claret, cherry and even maroon are all often used to describe the bluish-red shade used in tartans like Lindsay. This tartan has changed over the years from the original red (scarlet) to the much darker shade usually seen today.

In terms of the AOCDS tartan, I thought I’d check the description in the Register but it does not appear to be included.

[OC Richard]

Yes I searched the Register too, nada.

Next time I see Andrew Ross I will ask him about the design.

What strikes me about it is the subtlety of using so many different colours, which I don't often see in these tartans-by-committee / tartans made to resemble other stuff (flags, uniforms, etc).

The committee meeting in question would probably have gone something like this: the Sheriffs would have said "the tartan has to be mainly the green of our uniforms, with the gold from our insignia, the black from our neckties, and orange because we're in Orange County."

And most Police/Sheriff/Fire departments would have designed a simplistic tartan using only those colours.

But this tartan is so much nicer than that! For one thing they didn't use orange-orange (what in California is called Caltrans orange, the orange of safety signs and equipment used along our motorways) but instead used that sophisticated coral. And there are sky blue and teal lines.

And about the coral, I suppose one could call it "orange" or "scarlet" but neither word is accurate.

In ordinary tartan colour-scheme terms "ancient red" would be closest, I think.

For reference, the uniform of the Orange County Sheriffs Department. If I had been asked for tartan suggestions for the new Pipe Band I would have suggested Gordon. But the decision had been made early on to have a bespoke tartan.



For reference, Caltrans Orange. Many other things here in Orange County use that same orange.