Colour as Design: Weave Me a Rainbow

Produced in 1962 for the National Association of Scottish Woollen Manufacturers and Films of Scotland, ‘Weave Me A Rainbow’, a short film about the Scottish Woollen Industry, garnered awards at the Salerno, Venice and Rome Film Festivals. This paper considers how the film works to prioritise the role of colour in the production of yarn and design of woven cloth; to link it directly to ideas related to the ‘traditional’ expression of the Scottish landscape in cloth, and to simultaneously frame production and design as Modern. The paper also seeks to locate ‘Weave Me A Rainbow’ within the arts-led promotional and design strategies of the post-War British textile industries, assessing the importance of the inclusion of animations describing dye processes by the renown Halas & Batchelor Studio. Finally, it will reflect on the role of ‘colour as design’ in the Scottish woollen industry during the twentieth century more broadly.