Trend Love!

This is a colour trend I really love... using bright, light (almoist fluro but not) pastel-ish colours with really light grey backgrounds. Grey is usually a colour you would think to be really boring, but when using such a subtle but energetic colour with it, it completely changes grey's 'boring factor'. I really love this use of colour... to my eye it's the perfect calming but energetic balance of lighter colours.

From visuelle.co.uk

Orange... the war goes on.

Orange! Still not convinced. Here is an example of me NOT liking orange. Really not a big fan of it being used in a gradient/overlay type of manner. I think it looks a bit too bright and tacky. But hey, that's just me!

From visuelle.co.uk

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

Orange

I really like this use of colour. I think orange should just be by itself, not even with black, just white. It's bold but at the same time not in your face,. It's also a very appropriate colour to use for a product that is designed to give a boost of energy etc.

Again computer wise, I feel like orange can be pretty in your face and uninviting. These icons don't do anything for me. I'd prefer a more calming colour.

This is a use of orange I have looked at so many times but have never consciously thought about. i love the presence of pale orange in a sky scape. It is complimented perfectly by the light blues. Pale orange I find calming...

No a big fan of orange used in strange computer generated drawings. Especially not with muddy colours all around it.

Orange in nature I'm ok with... the flowers somehow seem to be warning me about something! They look like flowering beacons.

Interior/architecture wise I'm getting a bit over the stark modern use of orange as a highlight colour. I prefer more rustic approaches like the one above. It looks vivid but not overbearing.


I'm having mixed feelings about the colour orange at the moment... see above comments on various ways the colour is used... Personally I think it looks best used in its most natural state... in an orange! The coloured fruit reminds me of summer and freshness.

Samoan Houses

I recently went on a six day trip to Samoa. With my colour resource in mind, I was more than pleasantly surprised at the variety of amazingly coloured houses that lined the roads! Pastels, brights... it seemed that using only neutral colours would have been a high crime against the Samoan way of life!

I still can't quite put my finger on the fixation with (in particular) pastel colours. A lot of their traditional art, material etc uses very bright colours, but not pastels. I'm taking a wild guess and saying, perhaps pastels were all they had at the paint store! Samoa is a small place and many things aren't readily available. But obviously, pastel exterior paint is in bountiful supply.

The most striking combination that caught my eye was the light green and light purple together, reminding me of a delicious peppermint candy or pretty little flower. The people and the culture over there are so relaxed and vibrant, no wonder they like to have houses that bring these types of thoughts to mind!

Two Colour Shoes!

Upon perusal of my shoe cupboard recently, I found that I have a number of shoes that use only two colours!

The first are my favourite... my Bally flats. To me they are the perfect balance of black and white for shoes. The little white accent on the heel sets them apart from any other flats I have seen.

The black and yellow Nike's I also love... They are so bright and bold and remind me of a bumblebee. Again here I think there is a really good proportion of colour. A majority yellow means the shoes look more feminine. If they were mainly black I think they would look quite masculine.

The bottom two are good example of using white as an accent to a block colour (though excuse the dirtiness of my shoes because the white obviously isn't actually very white at all!!!) The block colour is predominant and white is used in areas where differentiation/attention needs to be drawn.

Thakoon - NYFW SS10

Thakoon's collection caught my eye for it's use of nude blocks and fluro accents together. He slowly introduces these little bits of electric blue and jumbles of bright fluro light blues, pinks etc which really compliments the softness of the nude base. I like this colour combination because it is unexpected. A soft neutral warm nude tone with a bright electric fluro hues of blue to cut through and give the outfit an edge.

Rodarte - NYFW SS10

Rodarte's SS10 show showcased an apocalyptic vision of flames, body decoration, scarification and destruction. The avant garde construction of the garments and the colour palette used worked together critically to create this well-realised collection.


ABOVE: Here you can see the use of red as an integral colour in the collection. When mixed and morphed with black, it takes on quite a violent and intense feeling. I think this is a really effective example only two colours being used together. It explores vivid patches of bright red as well as large dark shades of red and the grounding element of black.


ABOVE: This is an extension of the red outfit above, as now it is adding in white. The small flecks of white that are glimpsed in the skirt give it a slightly lighter, more tribal feeling. This to me again is another good example of using only two or three colours together. They work in the right proportions together to create Rodarte's apocalypse concept.

ABOVE: A completely earthy feeling is given off by this outfit. No loud patches of colour, just a simple progression from light brown tints to dark brown patterns and black. The patterned parts do well to break up the blocks of colour.

ABOVE: This is an interesting outfit. It is underpinned by the same natural look of the above outfit, but has an unexpected flash of fluro yellow/green in it. The lurid quality of the colour cuts through the earthiness and puts it into a level where it is almost space age (but still inextricably linked to nature somehow?!)