Into the abyss: An artist has created a deeper shade of black in an ongoing quest for design purity

A design world arms race to make the blackest black has intensified this week after an artist revealed his latest creation called Blink.  Stuart Semple created the ink over a period of two years after launching a precursor called Black 3.0 in 2019. The artist had been reacting to the controversy surrounding Anish Kapoor’s being given exclusive rights to Vantablack, the pigment that was initially developed for use on satellites owing to its high absorption rate.  Semple began experimenting with black after a farcical attempt to engineer a purer pink in parody of Kapoor. A more serious effort took shape after the 2019 release and following a beta testing period in which he assembled a team of other artists and designers to provide feedback for the darker and more opaque shade. Related on Archinect: Prepare to soon spot the blackest of black materials in architecture“Chemically there are similarities, but the acrylic resin in Black 3.0 is fundamentally different in Blink because we nee...