14 coloring

CO LOR ING X-REF 2014

In Architecture school, I was told to avoid colors in general, and was highly encouraged to use a neutral color pallette that consisted of:

101

WHITE 201

JUST WHITE 301

WHITE-ISH 401

102

103

104

105

106

LIGHT WHITE

BOLD WHITE

LESSER WHITE

PURE WHITE

SUPER WHITE

202

203

204

205

206

RICHARD MIER

501

WHITEOUT 601

EGGSHELL WHITE

WARM WHITE COOL WHITE

SNOW WHITE 306

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303

304

305

SATIN WHITE

MORE WHITE

LESS IS MORE

RAW WHITE

404

405

402

PLAIN

SIMPLE

403

PALE WHITE 502

ICE 503

ANGRY WHITE 504

TRUE WHITE

WHITE WHITE CORBU WHITE

602

603

DARK WHITE

HOW WHITE

604

ALL WHITE

YEP WHITE 505

WHITE IT IS 605

ONLY WHITE

GO WHITE 406

BLANK WHITE 506

PLEASE WHITE 000

ABSCENSE OF WHITE

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However, COLOR MATTERS! Thinking about color, made me realize that we don’t have to limit ourselves to a black and white world.

Our world is saturated in color, from soft hues to violent stains. Moreover, we don’t have to limit our color palette to blue, red, green and yellow.

Color names are, in some sense, culturally universal.

Red, rojo, rouge: all refer to the concept of redness, that vivid region of the visual spectrum that we associate with fire, strawberries, blood or ketchup, is something that most cultures share.

Shakespeare famously said that “a rose by any other name smells just as sweet”. So does red by another name look just as deep? And what if you didn’t have a name for red? Would it lose any of its luster? Would it be any harder to spot those red berries in the bush?

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Most of us, when we were learning the ‘standard’ color names, were likely to associate the color with an experience or object, rather than recognizing the color outright.

We associated trees with the color green and water with the color blue. However, what happens when you have a word to distinguishing two colors?

Sometimes colors blur the lines because they are similar in hue. Therefore, I would like to explore the connection between:

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COLOR + EMOTION = #COLOR NAME

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By picking a color and giving it a unique name to describe it, it puts awareness and emphasis on the presence of the color and our interpretation of the importance of what we are looking at and how it is making us feel. I find this fascinating, because by naming a color, we are unconsciously describing our emotions and highlighting a powerful idea about how we might perceive the world.

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COLOR NAMES MATTER, when navigating the NETHERLANDS! In the Netherlands, as the sun rises during Spring, millions of eager bulbs also rise for the occasion. Acres upon endless acres of the most brilliantly exquisite tulips transform dozens of ordinary fields into a colorful kaleidoscope of hues. One can not only be emotionally stimulated by its colorful fields and densely populated cityscapes, but also by its diversified culture. Unlike many European countries, Netherlands lacks a uniform national culture, which makes it vivid and multicolored. The diversity of Netherlands is reflected in its cities, where most houses and windmills are painted with strong and varied shades of color. The Spring in Netherlands is not only marked by vibrant flower markets, but also by its orange madness on King’s Day. To how lively the color is, the Netherlands should not surprise us as the famous painters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, van Gogh and de Kooning were born in this country.

9 When I come back I would like to encourage the firm to create their own color palette using the photographs I posted on Instagram.

Perhaps, we could apply our color palette to our designs, food, garment, etc. to re-create the feeling evoked by the new #colorname assigned.

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? As I am visiting the Netherlands, I would generate my own color palette based on colors that evoke an emotion on me; colors that soothe, excite, agitate, depress me.

Then, I would give each color its own unique name to describe it without using its standard color name (for example, the color of a field of tulips might be “spring illusion”). As I create my color palette I would be posting photographs on Instagram with its color name as a hashtag (#springillusion) so my followers would be able to see the progress of my color palette.