Swatch Combo 7 - CEO Chic

The subtle warmth of the grey makes this combination friendly, while the blue and black make it serious and stylish.

Swatch Combo 3 - Blushing African

What's great about this combo is that they all work together in equal proportion. A nice, sturdy scheme... no in your face 'highlights' or 'accents'.

Rustic/Modern

I think this is a great example of two colour use. By sticking with the two colours and using a lot of clean white space it keeps the cover modern, but the range of tints and shades in the image (and obviously the style of the crockery) gives it a rustic feel. Maroon is not a colour I would instantly say I really like, but here it really pleases my eyes.

From visuelle.co.uk

Which Grey?

I have been doing some fairly simple, neutral coloured design assignments of late so have been exploring different types of greys. There are three main types- pure greys, warm greys and cool greys. Pure greys are of course just tints of black. Warm greys are greys with a slight cast of either yellow, orange or red and cool greys have a slight cast of either green, blue or violet. Here is an example picture from Wikipedia.

This image made me wonder though that we could think of these swatches in two ways- as greys, or as simple super dulled down colours. When you compare warm greys and cool greys with pure greys they hardly look grey at all! They look colourful! Tricky colour terminology...

Doritos Packaging Concept

Here is a cool packaging concept I found on Behance.net. I think it shows great one colour use. Even though only one main colour is used per package, the faceted construction of the box adds depth to the colour depending on where the light falls. I think this singular bold colour use is also an advantage because it will make the packaging stand out on the shelf... usually chip packets use many different colours. While they are trying to compete against one another, they almost end up blending in to one another.

Japanese Bath

This image to me is the epitome of relaxation! I think this is because it is a direct reflection of nature. The wooden walls with the light, bright blue water and the greenish tinge of light reflection that floods the whole photograph- echoing wooden tree trunks, calm blue lakes and green fresh foliage. The brown is a warm, calming neutral and the blue gives a feeling of vibrance (but still the mood remains calm!). I would love to be relaxing in this Japanese bath right now...

Analogous Progressions

Some more fun paint play here... just exploring how analogous colours work. It's interesting how though the colours are next to each other, some (well to my eye anyway) seem cool and some seem warm.

Warm & Cool Experiment

I did a bit of an experiment here with how colours can change from warm to cool. I took a warm dark brown and a light cool tan colour and mixed them into a variety of different colours. When the warm brown and the colour mixed, no matter what the colour was, it always looked significantly warmer and visa versa with the cool tan colour. I found this quite interesting, and also that what people perceive as 'warm' and 'cool' can really differ depending on your own associations. So these are just my personal thoughts... Not a textbook case!

Paco Peregrin

Paco Peregrin is a photographer who produces work that speaks in a bold mix of photographic, art directed, fine art and fashion styles. The images below use warm, bright primary and secondary colours to make super impactful cameos. The colours are incredibly loud but almost balance themselves out in a way. This could be due to the fact that they are largely composed of red, blue, purple and pink. Purple is the result of a mix of red and blue, so somehow this seems to lessen the contrast between the two bright colours. The pinks and oranges also provide a fuller spectrum, so one cannot be drawn specifically to one colour at a time. I find myself soaking up the overall impression of these images (I find them warm, bright and sharp) and then looking at the finer details.