Multi Pertransibunt

OUR MOTTO: 
Multi pertransibunt et augebitur scientia

You'll find "Multi pertransibunt" on most of our product boxes. It's a hint about what we stand for at Federal Color. The English translation is "many will pass through and knowledge will increase."

The phrase is ancient — it's from the Book of Daniel, circa 200 B.C. — and mysterious. Its context is an apocalyptic prophesy, which Daniel (an exiled Jewish nobleman) is instructed to keep secret. The events of the prophesy are to happen in the far future and the world will not yet understand them. Closer to the fulfillment of the prophesy, 'many will pass through and knowledge will increase,' and people might be ready to understand the words in Daniel's scroll.

'Multi pertransibunt' appeared in quite a different context in 1620, as a motto on the frontispiece of Francis Bacon's Novum Organum, a foundational treatise in empiricism that helped to define the modern scientific method. Here the meaning seems a bit less mysterious: literally, many eyes and hands will examine the world from different perspectives, and thereby we'll learn more about it.

You can think of 'Multi pertransibunt' as our answer to the question "why start another color house?" At Federal, we believe that a boisterously diverse community is the strongest, and that more color companies means more excitement for artists. Different paints lend themselves to different techniques or subject matter, which expands the universe of possibilities for analog art.

You can also think of it as an artist's meditation, a stock answer to 'why make art anyway?' Each creative person is part of the process, much older and bigger than all of us, by which humanity gains self-consciousness. Your participation is sincerely appreciated.