Schmincke Designers' Gouache is a bright, ready-to-use line of opaque colors for design, architecture, and illustration work. In contrast to Schmincke Horadam Gouache, which is intended for classical fine art, Designers' Gouache is meant for quicker, more stylized work with less mixing. Sold in larger, less expensive tubes than Horadam Gouache, Schmincke Designers' Gouache encourages you to work freely and directly.

While Horadam Gouache emphasizes the natural color of each pigment, Designers' Gouache is engineered to match a balanced, evenly spaced range of essential colors for designers and illustrators. Formerly called HKS Gouache, these colors are keyed to the HKS color system, a German alternative to the Pantone color system that Schmincke co-founded in 1968. (The "S" in HKS stands for Schmincke, in fact.)

Many of the colors in the Designers' Gouache range are difficult to mix with a conventional gouache set, including the high-chroma colors that designers and contemporary artists rely on. Rather than working your way from dark blues and yellows to a bright, leafy green, you can simply open tube #557 and start sketching your idea.

The consistency and working properties of Designers' Gouache are similarly straightforward and practical. Smooth and brushable right from the tube, Designers' Gouache requires only a few drops of water for most applications. At full strength, you can apply it with a palette knife in bold, textured strokes, and diluted with water or watercolor medium, you can achieve a range of smooth washes.

This basic set of 12 colors includes bright primaries, the most useful secondary colors, and a couple of rich earth tones, plus black. Each color comes in a 20 mL metal tube, and the set is packed in a sturdy cardboard box with lid.

Made in Germany.