I think this is a good idea, I can't tell you how many times I've wanted color in my item names / lores.

Suggestion Perhaps an even better idea though, allow the use of unicode symbols.

Maybe if it's even just the section sign, because you can post them in the game - with special steps - which means, they have the art in the font, so, why not just allow us to use them, maybe not in the chat, but perhaps in command blocks.

Gamerules allowUnicode Options: all Allows use of unicode everywhere.

commandBlocks Allows use of unicode in command blocks.

signs Allow use of unicode on signs.

chat Allow use of unicode in chat.

none Disallow use of unicode everywhere.

Default The default option for this gamerule should be, commandBlocks

Other Notes You should be able to select more than one option.

allowedSymbols Options all Allow use of all unicode symbols.

none Disallow use of any unicode symbol.

colorOnly Allows use of only the § (section sign)

some This would have sub-options of: <mode> (either add or remove) and <symbols> (type each symbol you would like to add or remove from the whitelist of symbols, seperated by commas.) This command will allow use of any symbol, to make it easier to manage this gamerule.