This piece started as a question I kept circling back to: is nostalgia really about memory, or is it about how things looked? Before you remember what was happening, you remember how it looked. A good example to reflect on this is with technology. The more I paid attention to it (old cameras, colorful computers, foldable phones) the more it felt like sight comes first. We don’t just remember what things did, we remember the glow, the grain, the way a device moved or sat in a room. This is me thinking out loud about why visual design keeps returning, and what that says about how we remember, choose, and feel around technology now.

This essay traces how color in technology shifted from function to identity, from authority to atmosphere. What began as a visual language for safety and system state evolved into personal expression, then disappeared under professional minimalism and optimization. Today, color is re-emerging as presence. Through objects, interfaces, and spaces, technology is learning how to be seen again, signaling a quieter, more human relationship between design, vision, and experience.

Every January, CES shows us where technology is headed: innovators, media, and decision-makers sharing what they've been building and what they think we'll want next. I looked through 400+ products and organized them across eight perceptual systems: sight, sound, touch, taste, scent, space, time, and system. What stood out was a pattern: these devices aren't just responding to how we live, they're learning how we sense. That shift feels worth noticing.