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Plaid
Originally uploaded by Kevin Tamura
The legs are shaved, the first race of 2008 is done and the new kit has been rolled out. That’s right, plaid baby. Hey Slipstream already had argyle.
It’s going to be a good season.
Filed by Kevin at February 26th, 2008 under Cycling, Second Ascent
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Originally posted on the Blue Flavor Blog, please leave comments over there.
There few things in design more subjective than color, yet color is an integral part of any design. Often times color conversations can lead to arguments, divorce, fist-fights or the complete derailment of a project faster than you can say “Helvetica”. The problem tends to stem from the baggage a color brings to the table with it.
Colors by themselves carry many meanings. Red, for instance, can be associated with sin, rage, guilt, warning–all of which have negative meanings. On the flip side, red can also mean courage, luck, prosperity and heroism. These associations are largely steeped in cultural traditions and can be either positive or negative depending on the context in which they are used. Now add to that the complexity our own personal associations with color.
We all have our favorite colors; those that mean something to us. Some invoke nostalgia, while others rage: Wear a friend’s alma mater rival colors and watch his or her mouth start to foam. Putting these associations into the mix really stirs the pot even more and might give one a reason to run to the hills ’til doomsday. Alas, these options aren’t available to us and as design professionals we need to wade through this ocean. So, what to do?
Stop thinking of color as color and start thinking of it as language. Go back to your creative brief, client conversations and any other material you have. Start pulling out the verbs and adjectives that jump out at you. These are the characteristics the color palette you create needs to embody and should be the launching ground for your explorations.
With your cluster of keywords it’s time for the fun part: picking colors. We all have our own way of picking colors so I won’t go into that–heck, I do it a different way every time it seems. Whichever way you do it, always tie it back to your keywords and the emotions they evoke. Do these colors really say what you mean them to? Do they resonate a certain feeling? And so on. Words are very powerful and can get you thinking about color in different ways. So go forth and have fun.
Just like any part of a design, you need to sell your other stakeholders on color. The best way to do this is to go back to your keywords and describe the color platte to them and why it meets the needs of the project. Once you go back to language you can get around biases others might associate with color and get them to think of it in the context of the design. They have come to you to solve a problem, so by getting them on the same page and explaining why the colors you’ve chosen work, you can (hopefully) avoid the scuffles.
Ideally, everyone would understand and be excited about the the colors you’ve chosen, but this is the real world. When your other stakeholders push back, let them. Get them to talk about why they don’t like it. If they can’t give you an answer push them even harder for one. This will give you some valuable insight into what they are thinking. Often it might be an arbitrary decision you can bypass by putting the colors in the context of the target audience. After all, your users are a key stakeholder as well.
Color is a valuable part of any design and yet one of the most turbulent aspects. It’s mired in both cultural and personal associations that can make dealing with color like walking a mine field. The more you are able to talk about color in context of the design goals and how they help achieve them, the more successful your designs will be.
Ah, color, it’s a splendid thing.
Filed by Kevin at January 22nd, 2008 under Blue Flavor, Design
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It hit me last night over dinner conversation that Vista is the new Bob.
Filed by Kevin at January 7th, 2008 under Random
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I spent most of the night resolving a nice little problem with the latest update to OSX. For some reason the computer got stuck in Setup Assistant mode after the reboot. Oh crap is right, especially since I hadn’t backed up my drive since leaving for the holidays 2 weeks ago.
After several attempts to get things running again I was able to get online and track down the problem. I guess it’s happened several times. The cure: start the computer in safe mode (hold down the shift key on reboot). Once you get to the login screen hit restart. And bingo, I was back up and running.
Now, time to back things up.
Filed by Kevin at January 3rd, 2008 under Random
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Recently a bunch of my photos on flickr have been getting favorited. While it’s always nice that others like what I shoot, I find it a little bit bizarre that I don’t know these people. Ah, this strange digital age we live in.
Filed by Kevin at November 25th, 2007 under Random
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