Keeping our design simplicity line of this weeks posting, how about a color changing umbrella that brightens up the rainy days.

We featured the color changing umbrellas designed by SquidLondon earlier but the new, color splash design which is available from UrbanTrim for $38.- is definitely an eye catching, colorful break on a otherwise dull rainy day.

The umbrella starts out in black and white. As the rain starts falling on the umbrella, each drop will cause the colorful design to show through. Eventually when the whole umbrella is wet it will have morphed into the vibrant colorful version that you can see in the photo.

When the rain stops and the umbrella dries the colorful design will slowly fade back to white, ready for your next rainy adventure.

The color chaining miracle is made possible by Hydrochromic ink which reacts with water, chaining from one color stage to another. All the different colors start out as white and then showing their second personality when coming in contact with water.

High tech ink applied to a low tech product = a colorful life.

Lazybone, a UK online retailer for uniquey, geekery gadgets offers a fully into their uniquey, geekery fitting portfolio, the Color Changing Umbrella.

We have seen and posted about iluminated umbrellas before, even solar charging umbrellas but this one manages to really brighten up the otherwise usually grey, dull days when rain pours down.

Actually it might be so fascinating to watch the color change that we don’t want the rain to stop ever again.

When there is no rain, this umbrella shows white clouds with rain drops falling out of them but as soon real raindrops hit the umbrella these white rain clouds come to a colorful life.

This miracle is made possible with the use of Hydrochromic ink which is a type of ink that changes color when in contact with water and reverses back to ‘colorless’ when the area dries up.

Thanks to this special ink, which is simple to use via screen printing a nice, magical effect is painted on the umbrella and I guess on many faces who see this transformation on a dull, rainy day.

The Color Changing Umbrella can be ordered here for $32.77

It is fascinating to see what kind off effects ink technologies like Thermochromic which changes color when exposed to differences in temperature, Photochromic inks which change color when exposed to UV light and the Hydrochromic ink which reacts with water can achieve.

It opens doors to many playful style elements on clothing and I am a bit surprised why not more designer use this special effects in their designs. There are not many technological difficulties to apply these inks as they use conventional screen printing technology, something that is used on many clothing items for ages.

[via: Fashionablygeek]