Posted in Color, Inspiration, tagged cfda collor pinterest board, color, color inspiration, colour, dcwdesign, pinterest, yellow on April 22, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
“What a horrible thing yellow is”
Edgar Degas
To celebrate 500+ followers on Pinterest, I wanted to share some colour inspiration from some of my very own pins. I found the quote above and thought it was quite funny. Yellow is such a beautiful colour, how could someone say it’s horrible? You be the judge! And if you don’t follow me yet, follow me on Pinterest!
Posted in Patterns, Scandinavian Design, Textiles, tagged accessories, bags, color, colour, fashion, maija isola, marimekko, pattern design, scandinavian design, spring 2013, style, textile design on March 15, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Marimekko Spring 2013 – full catalog here.
It’s (almost) that time of year again, SPRING! To celebrate, I’m sharing new images from Marimekko‘s Spring 2013 campaign, “Colour for a reason.” Aren’t these colors and textiles like a breath of fresh air?? Be sure to drop by one of their stores, or check out their new collections online here.
Spring 2013 at Marimekko – Colour for a reason. Get into it!
Maija Isola pattern from 1961, today in 2013. How great is that?
Posted in Interior Design, tagged color, data center, design, google, interior design, north carolina, technology on October 23, 2012 | 1 Comment »
For the first time, Google released photos of one of it’s data centers showing the complex networks of pipes, servers and technology the technology giant uses to power the internet. The facility, located in Lenoir, NC, is part of a complex of buildings recently built in North Carolina. Apple also recently broke ground a data center in Maiden, North Carolina – so the internet is alive in NC! I love how Google color-coded their infrastructure to match their iconic logo – what a great idea. Playful, and very organized. It’s mind blowing to think of the level of organization needed to design and build one of these centers. See more photos below.
To see more photos, visit 8 places your computer has already been.
Technology is beautiful!
Posted in Art, Fashion, Graphic Design, tagged color, dcwdesign, fashion, Inspiration, j. crew, j.crew spring 2012, kate spade, kate spade ny on February 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The wonderful people at J.Crew just released their 2012 J. Crew Collection and I stumbled across these images from their 770 Behind the Line blog. As we’re in the middle of winter here in NYC it’s refreshing to see COLOR! What I love so much about J.Crew (for women) is their playful use of color. They have really moved beyond the bland preppy-casual style of J.Crew in the 2000s. The J.Crew of today is so different than it was just 10 years ago. There are a few interesting articles about the transformation of J.Crew over the years under the direction of Jenna Lyons that are interesting to read. Seems like it was quite the battle but from what I’ve read, J.Crew has never done better. I wish the Men’s lines would take more risks and use more color/pattern, but I will say the NY Liquor/NYC Men’s stores are so much more well designed than the typical mall stores. So that’s something!
Anyways … what I really love about these pictures are the vibrant colors. As a male graphic designer, obviously I can’t wear this stuff (or could I? … jk), so I use this stuff as great inspiration. If I’m feeling uninspired or starting a new project, I love looking through my fashion image libraries and using the color picker in Photoshop/Illustrator to pick new color combinations. That’s one of the tricks I learned from my time in Copenhagen studying textile design. Interior design blogs and magazines are also great for this! Look for brands (or photos) that playfully use and MIX colors, and bring that to what you’re designing to create something new and surprising. Use something from one medium, be it fashion or interior design, and bring that to graphic design. Here’s what I mean:
So in love with these magenta pants .. gonna try to rock a colored pant this spring
So if this is something that is interesting to you, I have a few sites to check out.
1. J.Crew’s Behind the Line Tumblr.
2. Kate Spade’s Tumblr & Pinterest.
3. Design to Inspire Blog
4. My Tumblr! 
Rebecca Bauman via J.Crew’s Tumblr.
Kate Spade NY’s Tumblr.
My Tumblr archive.
Posted in Advertising, Fashion, Patterns, Textiles, tagged color, fashion, kate spade, kate spade ads, textile design on August 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I’m coming out of the closet and confessing my love for a girl, the one and only, Kate Spade. My love affair with Kate is truly so secret to anyone that knows me. Now I going to pronounce my love for the world to see. Since I’m returning to the US in less than 7 days, I thought I’d do another 7 Designers series, and while Kate Spade isn’t an example of Scandinavian design, some comparisons can easily be made. What makes Kate Spade stand out to me is their playful use of color. Every time I pass their store in Soho or see one of their ads, I always think about how beautiful their world looks. Color is also incredibly important in textile design, perhaps the most important element. Our teachers have told us colors are what sells patterns and textiles, not necessarily the design. This is also true in graphic design – color adds so much to design and is so loaded with content and meaning. I’m also in love with the photography and type that’s used in the Kate Spade ads from the last several years. They’re really stepping up their design game. I’d love to find out who is the creative mastermind behind their current look. Let’s look at some examples ..
Now my favorite ads Kate Spade has done is their 2009 Holiday campaign. I remember seeing these in Manhattan during my first Christmas in the city. I saw the ads below wheatpasted to a wall in Soho and tried to take the best pictures I could with my iphone. Here’s what I got.
Notice the use of my favorite typeface Bodoni!
Love the picture, love the colors, and especially love how they’re playing with type. So beautiful I think.
Here’s another one I found online – I wish I had copies of the whole “20 ways to merry-make” campaign.
So want to know more about how color inspires the Kate Spade team? I recently noticed Kate Spade set up a blog, The Weekly Spade: a blog about color. Lots of great color inspiration there. They also have a Behind the Curtain blog showing sneak peaks into their campaigns, special projects, and things they love. So much beautiful inspiration. Enjoy and fall in love!
Green from the Weekly Spade.
And Blue for July!
