AI can make any colour. Colour Memory knows where it came from.
Already in the Claude connector directory and launching publicly today, the UK-built archive gives Claude the source and evidence behind a colour, and refuses to invent what was never recorded.
OXFORDSHIRE, 20 October 2026. Ask most people what colour Dorothy's slippers were and they will say ruby. In L. Frank Baum's 1900 book, they were silver. Ask Claude, using Colour Memory, and it follows the colour from page to screen: silver in Baum's book, with the page numbers; ruby red for the Technicolor film, in the Smithsonian's own words; then the museum's surviving pair taken apart colour by colour, down to a bluish pink dye over silver and toe sequins faded by the studio lights. Where something was never measured, it does not invent a hex value. See it, with the exact question to copy: https://www.colourmemory.com/claude#ask
That is the difference. AI can produce a convincing colour, hex value or colour history in seconds. Colour Memory, already listed in the Claude connector directory and launching publicly today, gives Claude a researched archive to check against, so it can show where a colour came from and say plainly where the evidence stops.
What changes when Claude uses Colour Memory
Colour claims come with their source and evidence grade, or a plain statement that nothing is recorded. Hex values are labelled as documented, estimated from a historical description, or a look-alike. Contrast is calculated for every colour pair, pass or fail, and colours are checked against market and period context before a campaign is printed, a brand identity approved or a film set built.
The platform draws on 52,634 total archive records across 98 collections, including 45,303 colour records, bringing together historical documents, materials, museum research and cultural references. Each record carries an evidence grade, and the system distinguishes what a source documents from what can only be estimated or interpreted.
Anyone can test it. Six demonstrations, including a room-by-room reading of a 1771 country-house diary,, each run in Claude with Colour Memory before publication, are at https://www.colourmemory.com/claude#ask, each starting "Using Colour Memory", which tells Claude to call it. In one, Colour Memory audits a four-colour brand palette: every pairing is measured, 3 of the 6 pass WCAG AA for body text, and green on burgundy fails at 1.20:1.
Built by a photographer
Colour Memory was founded by Digby Oldridge, an Oxfordshire-based photographer and filmmaker who has spent more than 20 years producing images and films for commercial brands and PR agencies.
"When anyone can make something look extraordinary with a single prompt, looking extraordinary is no longer enough. What matters is why," said Oldridge. "Every colour has a past, and that history is an extraordinary creative resource. Colour Memory gives AI something more substantial to work from, so the decisions behind the work can be as interesting as the results."
Colour Memory is available in Claude, through two Figma plugins, Colour Memory and Palettes by Colour Memory, and to developers via an API and MCP server listed in the official MCP Registry. It is free to explore, with paid plans for professional use.
Notes to editors
About Colour Memory: Colour Memory is an independent UK colour intelligence platform that shows AI where a colour comes from. It gives Claude and designers the source, evidence grade and limits behind a colour, inside Claude, Figma and other AI and design tools. It is developed by PR Eye Ltd in Oxfordshire.
About the founder: Digby Oldridge is a British photographer, filmmaker and technology founder based in Oxfordshire, and director of PR Eye Ltd.
Archive figures: as read from the live service on 19 October 2026, Colour Memory contained 52,634 total archive records across 98 collections, including 45,303 colour records. Historic hex values are screen approximations unless otherwise specified, not measurements of physical samples.
Image: the Dorothy's ruby slippers demonstration as shown at colourmemory.com/claude, one of six questions run in Claude with Colour Memory before publication. Swatches are screen renderings, not measurements.
Interviews and demonstrations: a live demonstration and founder interview are available on request.
Press contact: hello@colourmemory.com
Moble: +447879403618
Claude listing:
https://claude.ai/directory/colour-memory
Website: https://www.colourmemory.com/claude
News Room https://www.colourmemory.com/newsroom
ENDS