colour | 1 – Bonnie Tsang
As much as I love working with colour in design I find it hard at times to come up with a colour palette from scratch that evokes exactly what I want it to. For random inspiration I use colourlovers a lot. You search something like “sun” and get a number of different palettes in varying tints and tones of yellows and blues. The colour palettes are uploaded by users so sometimes a search term can bring up the opposite of what you are looking for. I find it a great tool for colour brainstorming. It’s really exciting when I have a rough idea in mind, then go on colourlovers and get so many more options, which I hadn’t even consider before. I don’t usually use the exact palettes I come across, but save two or three and use them as a template to mix and match my own.
In an effort to bring some more colour to my own blog and practice my colour-combining skills I have decided to introduce this new little colour column to my own blog. Every now and then I will feature a design, photograph or piece of art that inspires me and dissect it.
I’m very inspired by photography so it felt right to start this new column off with a lifestyle photograph from Bonnie Tsang. I am very attracted to photographers who play with depth of field. Bonnie Tsang always has great composition in her photos and a real good eye for simplicity and details. With spring around the corner I love the warm colours the light creates in this photo. The colours I picked out of this photos are very much in style right now; neutrals with a bright soft pop of teal, very retro indeed.
For more photography by Bonnie check out her portfolio. You really get a sense of her style by just scrolling through her instagram pictures as well.
I have the same problem, sometimes creating color palettes off the top of my head just does. not. work.
I’ll have to check out colourlovers!
You should try Design Seeds, I get a lot of my color palettes from there.
Nesha xo
Thanks Nesha, just checked out Design Seeds and it looks like I may be going there often :)
I have a few more colour inspiration sites I like to check out so I may do another colour-rescoure post soon!
I agree with Nesha on Design Seeds. I like to create my own color palettes from inspiring images I find for my mood boards. I do love Color Louvers though. Bonnie is one of my favorite photographers so it’s great to see her posted here.
Colourlovers*
I’m such a big fan of Bonnie’s work. She’s amongst my top 5 photographers for sure.
Dissecting an image + pulling colors from it is one of the best ways to discover what colour pallete suits whatever mood you are in! I love doing this… and I think you’re going to have a lot of fun with this blog column of yours. :)
Happy weekend to you!
Thanks!! I do it a lot for my freelance work and am excited to further explore it just for fun :)
Hello! I checked Pugly Pixel’s Launched No. 3 and your blog is included so I came to visit. :)
Same here, I am having a hard time when it comes to color combinations. Thanks for sharing colourlovers, I might use it from now on. :)
I’ll be looking out for the inspirations you’ll be posting. It will be a great help! :) Thanks!
Thanks Mei!
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