Colour Psychology

I’ve been thinking a lot about flourescent colours recently. It all started when I went to New York and I seemed to notice a lot of “flouro” as they call it over there – in shops like Kate Spade and Purl Soho and also just in what I was drawn to. I serendipitously picked up a pink neon pen for my scrapbook from Muji, and then as soon as I hit the styling class, there were splashes of neon everywhere.

Isn’t it funny how that sort of thing happens? You have a germ of an idea in your head for a while and then suddenly, bam, it hits you all at once!

Back at home Easy Living magazine featured neon and then, lo and behold, the king of middle England Johnnie Boden sent me through a catalogue with neon on it! And you know what? I really think it works.

In small doses I love a bit of neon. I think it adds a real edge to something that would otherwise be very tasteful and safe, and it’s good to funk it up isn’t it.

Neon and Colour Psychology

In terms of colour psychology, neon sits firmly in the Winter camp. It’s bright, intense and incredibly dramatic! A little definitely goes a long way.

We’re going to be experimenting with a splash of neon for homeware and gift company Pablo Blue and I’m really excited. It’s pushing our client ever so slightly out of her comfort zone, but she’s really up for the experiment and we’re looking forward to creating something that lifts her brand out of the safe but bland zone into something much more compelling.

We’re also using edges of neon for Love Interiors to give it a directional and design led edge.

Neon colours carry the same properties as their less flourescent counterparts: so neon pink is still feminine, warm and nurturing, but the neon, winter edge brings with it a level of edge that mean that the coolest brands can carry off this colour. And if you’re afraid of neon, remember that Liberty of London pull neon off incredibly well and it signals their commitment to high end design.

Tagged as in Colour Psychology, Inspirations

Spring Greens by Design Seeds

Your response to my post on Blogstomp got me thinking that I should share more resources that will make your blogging and business journeys more fun. And so I am delighted to share Design Seeds with you. Have you found her on Pinterest or via her website already? Isn’t she fabulous?

I look at that image above with it’s fresh, Spring greens and I just feel energised and happy. It’s a primal, subconscious thing but green just speaks to me in a really powerful way.

Design Seeds is the brainchild of colour consultant Jessica Colaluca and she combines stunning images with inspirational colour palettes that I find utterly addictive. With the tagline For All Who Love Color, she had me hooked straightaway!

Here are a few of my favourite colour palettes.

I notice the colour palette more than the image in this one. Beautiful, earthy, grounded and green. Oh, and then the chocolate mint mousse – what’s not to like? Whipped Tones

It’s probably my Persian roots but I have a real thing for pistachios. And mustard yellow – gorgeous! Pistachio Hues

I’ve a bit of a thing for mustard yellow and grey right now. I’m considering how I can use it (along with a nice splash of teal) in our new sitting room. This is very grown up, very strong isn’t it? Door Tones

Pretty but with enough edge in the palette from the brown that it doesn’t feel too girly. Faded Flora

It’s that durgy, mustardy, limey green again with earthy undertones. Delicious.

This is quite a sweet colour palette isn’t it? Everything harmonises really nicely and sits very well on the page. Pasta color.

What I love about this website is that it feeds my creativity and encourages me to look at colour in a different way.

When we create a colour palette for a new brand identity we’re always very analytical: we look at the messages the client needs the brand to convey and we use colours, tones, textures and shapes to support that message. But we never do that in a vacuum, we want to create beautiful colour palettes that evoke the senses and it’s sites like this that inspire us with new combinations, tones or trends as well as feeding our creativity.

If you’re a designer: be it product, fashion, interior or graphics I know you’re going to find this website incredibly inspiring. But I also think there’s a huge amount of value in it for anyone who simply takes energy and inspiration from colour. What do you think?

Tell me, do you use Design Seeds already? I’d love to know how. Which of these colour palettes speaks to you the most?

Tagged as , color palettes, colour palettes, design seeds, design seeds review, jessica cololuca in Colour Psychology, Inspirations

These bright, crisp days are just what we needed aren’t they?

There’s a lot happening at Flourish at the moment which we’re all finding incredibly inspiring. Team promotions, new designers, some very exciting client projects, the launch of the branding masterclass, oh, and the small matter of a nip tuck to the Flourish brand identity (which I’ll share with you soon). Because of all this bright, new stuff, I’m feeling very fired up, very creative and very excited about the future.

I think this lovely, yellow mood board just about sums up our mood right now. Optimistic and inspired. How are you feeling right now?

Recently I’ve been spending 10 minutes at the start of every day on Pinterest. It’s a tip I picked up from Elizabeth Cairns when we were recording a video for the Branding Masterclass; Elizabeth encouraged us to spend time getting into our flow at the start of the working day: doing things that inspire us. For some of you that may be being relaxed, others may like to organise, spend time outside or exercising. For me it’s about being creative. And I’m finding Pinterest the perfect inspiration tool – as long as I limit myself to 10 minutes a day.

What do you do to get into your flow?

Ps the only downside to Pinterest is that it’s incredibly difficult to track back the image sources. None of the above are my images (apart from the colour palette) all via my Spring Optimism Pinterest board

Tagged as in Colour Psychology, Inspirations

  It’s been a while since I’ve blogged my inspirations. And whilst I’m much more inspired by Autumn and Spring than I am Summer, the fact is that I just didn’t get round to photographing as much as I would have liked over the last few months. I suspect that my lack of time to [...]

Tagged as in Colour Psychology, Inspirations

Remember that series I wrote waaaay back in January about Colour Psychology? I wrote a series of posts about the seasonal colour personalities and also about the meanings and effects of colour. Well isn’t blogging just wonderful? You all tweeted it lots for me, you even gave me lots of lovely feedback about it. And [...]

Tagged as in Absolute Essentials of Colour Psychology, Colour Psychology

Note: I’m going to get a little bit techy here about colour psychology. Regular blog readers will be familiar with me talking about seasonal colour psychology personalities and the effect they have on the business. If you’re new to the concept of colour psychology you may like to read my Colour Psychology Absolute Essentials posts [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Colour Psychology, Graphic Design, Logo Design

You know we love beautiful colour palettes – palettes that not only look great but that work together and powerfully communicate the message our client wants to. Well today I want to give you a bit of an insight into how we create these palettes. It’s easy to look at these harmonious palettes, all sparkling [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Colour Psychology, Logo Design

Powerful design enables you to connect with your ideal clients. It’ll help you attract, engage and seduce them into buying from you or working with you, and of course, it’s a wider thing than just design. It’s about your powerful design fitting into a powerful brand strategy. Next week I’ll be sharing with you how [...]

Tagged as , powerful branding, powerful design in Branding, Colour Psychology, Graphic Design

In my last post we looked at the heirarchy of design and I introduced the concept of powerful design. The idea that good design just isn’t enough. To truly flourish your design needs to connect with your audience. Now a good part of that comes down to really understanding the brief and the designer having [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Colour Psychology

Last week we sent twenty or so of our most loyal customers a small valentines gift to thank them for their loyalty. I handmade some very lovely bathmelts which we celophane wrapped, tied with a green velvet ribbon and enclosed a small note. In true valentines tradition we deliberately left off the Flourish name and [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Colour Psychology, Flourish Stuff, Graphic Design, Logo Design, The Flourish Identity