BLACKPINK - Pink Venom Colour Palette

Let’s take the colour palette used in the BLACKPINK Pink Venom video. At the beginning of the video, you can observed that the 2 primary colours are black and pink. It connects you to their group name. Moreover, it suits the music title - Pink Venom too.

After the opening, you can see Jennie is dressed in red. Red will be one of the secondary colours. If you look carefully at the transition, you can see that the video editors include a pink filter to her eyes. Similarly, in Lisa’s scene, she is wearing a red top and her eyes were edited to have a similar pink filter. What's the purpose of the pink eyes? Are they infected by the pink venom? Or are they poisonous?  

After the rap, it went straight to a darker mood. The primary colour in Rose and Jisoo scenes is black. It is to give off a dark mood. Minimal colours are used in these scenes. However, you can still observe the pink and red in some of the scenes. On top of that, a new colour - blue is being introduced. 

The blue smoke.

Source: BLACKPINK YouTube

Jisoo’s hair accessories are in red and blue.

Source: BLACKPINK YouTube

Hence, in less than a minute, we can easily observe that the colour palette for the music video is black, pink, red and blue. Black and pink are the primary colours. Black is a dominant colour that is used in all of the scenes. You can observe the pink in their make-up too.

There is a sudden change in the colour in the chorus. Why is that so? My guesses are:

  1. A nude palette goes well with colours too.

  2. The colours remind me of the skin of a rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes are venomous.

  3. It is to highlight the chorus of the song.

After the chorus, they reintroduce the pop of colours again. It is a good choice to have more colours in this scene as it matches the vibe of the rap. 

Let’s fast forward to the next chorus. The members were decked out in clothing that consisted of the colours - black, pink, red and blue. It suddenly becomes a bright and colourful scene. I guessed the main reason for doing so is because they want the audience to focus on this scene. It consists of a dance challenge. 

You can spot some green on Lisa’s attire. Green is a tertiary colour, as it appeared again at the ending of the music video.

In the ending scene, you can spot the colour palette used in the music video. The colours are black, pink, red, blue and green, excluding the neutral and nudes.

After watching and doing this piece of article, I am surprised that the creative directors did not incorporate green and purple as one of the primary colours. It is because the title of the song is Pink Venom. Obviously, it is not surprising that they used pink. However, venom is a type of poison. Green and purple can be used to reflect dangerous substances. I was hoping that they include some poisonous plants and flowers among the plants in the ending scene too.

I sugesst that the designers courld use the following colour palette to highlight the band brand and song title. I included one more colour - lavender blue because it is between purple and blue. So, the designers can use the various shades of it to coordinate the clothes, accessories, etc.

I hope you have a fun time studying the colours used in BLACKPINK - Pink Venom music video.

x, Esther