When Homer Laughlin showed off his colorful line of Fiesta dinnerware for the first time at a Pittsburgh pottery show in 1936, he had little idea of the way he was going to brighten countless kitchens and dinner tables throughout America.

Or perhaps he Frank Rhead, the English artistic dinnerware designer potter who helped him develop the original Fiesta dinnerware line, had some idea of what they were doing. In one account, Rhead carries on at length about the trial runs and various models that were created just to settle matters of texture, shape, and color for their beautiful, perky new dinnerware. They finally settled on a smooth texture, nearly plain oval shape with a few ridges on the edges, and on five main colors: red, blue, green, yellow, and ivory. The ivory was the biggest surprise to all the creative team and those tasked with marketing the first Fiesta dinnerware. In a magazine of the time, Rhead explained:

But there seemed to demand a quieting influence; so we tried an ivory vellum textured glaze which seemed to fit halfway between the yellow and the regular semi-vitreous wares and which cliqued when placed against any of the four colors selected. It took a little time to sell the ivory to our sales organization; but when they saw the table arrangements, they accepted the idea. (Quotation taken from "Collector's Encyclopedia of Fiesta: Ninth Edition" by Bob and Sharon Huxford, Collector Books: 2001, page 9)