header photo

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Color and Other Random Inspirations


Happy Summer! 

Hope yours is off to a colorful start!  It's an ideal time to let thoughts (and feet) wander. What's inspiring you? Making you visually happy? So many things are inspiring me right now.  Here's just a few, pardon the randomness:


1. My new office color, Benjamin Moore's Rocky Coast:


This ended up being the perfect grey without unwanted undertones to support the colorful art and furniture in my office ( pictures to come!)




2. 130 years of Vogue color. Artist Arthur Buxton chose the top 5 most prominent colors from each Vogue cover over 130 years and used open source sampling tools to sandwich them into gorgeous visuals. 



Each vertical column represents a year of magazine covers, while each horizontal column represents a month. You can see the color trends from different countries and different years. You can read his blog here.



3.Using color to instill pride and a sense of well being.  Project Color Corps is doing this right in my own city of Oakland. 


Color legend, Laura Guido-Clark, and her team are repainting the dull, depressing colors of an Oakland school considered to have a high at risk/disadvantaged community, into a student advised palette of wonderful color.  Read more about the project here.




4. Pantone's color of the year, Tangerine Tango


This orangy-red has been making me smile despite the fact that I've always shied away from oranges.  I think I'm converting! This color has been showing up in so many fashion and home items:

 Source: Compartmentlife.com

I was pleasantly surprised to see their partnership with Sephora make-up stores with all sorts of fun visuals.  Below is a pop-up shop in New York featuring giant color strips!



5. Thrifting!  A passion of mine on and off for 30 years. Talk about finding some color for your wardrobe and home!



6. The Color Run!  I will be running this along with my family in San Francisco in a couple of weeks-our first time:





Find out more info on Color Run in your area here!

 7. .....and whoever the awesome person is that I spotted driving this pink vintage Mustang across the Bay Bridge recently, thank you: