Abstract: The relevance of the research presented in the article is due to new trends in modern education related to the need for competent implementation of the results of modern cross-disciplinary color studies in the process of professional training of design students. The purpose of the work is to use the methodology tested in Sweden and the UK to establish the quantity and quality of knowledge about the color of Russian design students and to compare these parameters with the corresponding indicators of foreign students. The object of the study is the color competence of Russian students, the subject is cross–cultural differences in the principles and mechanisms of using color in everyday design practice. The authors consider in detail the main areas of research that have formed the scientific basis of evidence-based color design. To assess the quantity and quality of students' knowledge about color, a modified method of Janssens & Mikellides was used. The answers were collected during an online survey in which 187 students of the Design program (147 women and 40 men) aged 17 to 48 years took part (average age 20.43, SD=3.5). The main conclusion of the study is that Russian students have a fairly high index of knowledge about color and even surpass students studying in the UK and Sweden by this indicator. The value of the index of general knowledge about color is almost the same for first- and last-year students. A lower index of knowledge about the color vision of elderly people among students starting their studies compared to graduates correlates with differences in the choice of sources of information about color. Undergraduates are experiencing an increase in interest in evidence-based design and a change in the target setting for the use of classical color theory in the development of design solutions in combination with proven empirical data, which reflects the anthropological turn of modern design and urbanism in general. The results of the analysis have both practical and theoretical significance and will contribute to further understanding of art education in the world.