Winsor & Newton has been producing Designers' Gouache since 1935, and the company continues to offer the finest artists' gouache range available. Today, the range benefits from significant developments in technology and the paints are smoother, flatter, more opaque, and more brilliant than ever before.

A range of opaque watercolors primarily used by designers, illustrators, and commercial artists to create vibrant illustrations in solid color, Winsor & Newton Designers' Gouache is also widely used in fine art as an opaque watercolor.

The Designers' Gouache range offers a wide and balanced spectrum of colors. The colors have been chosen according to mass tone (color from tube), color bias (undertone), color strength, and relative opacity. The range includes bright colors for designers, more lightfast ones for fine artists, and a number of unique ultra bright colors such as Opera Pink and Opera Rose — ensuring that all artists can obtain the palette that best suits their work, and also that all colors can be safely intermixed.

The colors within the Winsor & Newton Designers' Gouache range are opaque due to the exceptionally high levels of pigmentation in the formulation, which results in unsurpassed covering power and clean color-mixing. In total, there are 45 different pigments used in the Designers' Gouache range, including many single pigment colors, to provide the widest handling properties and to maintain clean mixing, which is of particular interest to fine artists.

Other colors are produced using specific mixtures of pigments, saving the artist time and color that might otherwise be wasted on incorrect mixing. Recognizing that it is more difficult to obtain a complete spectrum using only single pigments because many are naturally more transparent, Winsor & Newton Designers' Gouache includes mixed colors to ensure the widest spectrum without compromising brilliance and opacity.

Every color within Winsor & Newton's Designers' Gouache range has an individual formulation to take advantage of each and every pigment characteristic and to ensure tube stability. As a result of its high level of pigmentation, Designers' Gouache dries to a matte finish, reducing the reflection when photographing the work. Winsor & Newton Designers' Gouache should not be applied too thickly as it may crack.

Winsor & Newton Designers' Gouache is created by combining pigment and Gum Arabic — the binder that holds the pigment and gives it a creamy, flowing consistency that glides across grounds, resulting in a flat, non-streaky finish. One of the natural attributes of Gum Arabic is that it is quick-drying, allowing quick working techniques and preliminary sketching to be done. This quick-drying feature also allows work to be completed quickly, resulting in easier transporting of finished artwork.

All Winsor & Newton Designers' Gouache colors are fully compatible with Winsor & Newton Artists' Colors and Cotman watercolors. Although Designers' Gouache colors are more opaque than Artists' Watercolors, the degree to which they cover varies.

Designers' Gouache may also be mixed with Winsor & Newton Artists' Acrylics and Galeria Flow Formula Acrylics. Care should be taken, however, as some gouache colors may react adversely with acrylics. Combinations should be tested on the palette paper prior to use in a painting.

For design and illustration, where work is intended for electronic scanning and reproduction, illustration board or a hot press watercolor paper is recommended for use, for a flat finish that reproduces well. For fine art painting, watercolor papers are recommended.

Individual tubes of Winsor & Newton Designers' Gouache are 14 ml (0.47 oz). Black and White colors are also available in larger size 37 ml (1.25 oz) tubes. Gold and Silver are available in both 14 ml (0.47 oz) tubes and 30 ml (1 oz) jars. However the formulations differ slightly. The jar formulations are metal based, whereas the tube formulations use mica based pigments that have a metallic sheen but contain no metal. The jar colors are a little more fluid and generally stronger and more opaque. The tube colors will not tarnish.