ATV3: Research point 1

Jennie Caminada

9 min readJun 30, 2019

Colour research: Voyage Decoration

How do they control colour in their design? The colours in their work are gentle, semi-transparent, complimentary, look like they’ve been painted on with water colour paints, without clearly defined edges, floaty and romantic.
What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour? The palettes within each piece are easy of the eye, traditionally “feminine”, often very watery/ transparent.
Does the colour use work well with the actual design? It compliments the designs well, the colours are pretty and pretty much what you would expect with those kinds of wispy whimsical designs
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent? I’d say they are pretty interdependent. As the outlines aren’t always clearly drawn in it often hangs on the colours to finish the design but the way the designs are drawn would also be informing the colour and opacity.

Colour research: Marimekko

What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour?
Does the colour use work well with the actual design?
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent?

Marimekko uses signature graphic prints with mostly bold, often primary, colour, as well as black and white. Their work is recognisable and striking and high contrast. The colours usually are what is traditionally seen as clashing, green and blue or pink and red. I like Marimekko a lot but I bet a lot of people would feel the designs too bright and in your face! To me the designs and colour work very well together and are proportioned well. I’d say the colour in the designs is what makes their work so recognisable and is probably more important than the designs although they do often use the same designs with different colour combinations so maybe they carry equal weight.

Colour research: Mary Katrantzou

What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour?
Does the colour use work well with the actual design?
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent?

The colours and patterns in Mary’s work are bright, bold, exciting, often unconventional, graphic, clashing. The palettes are wild, definitely not gentle or traditional! I feel it is entirely possible the outrageous patterns and colours may be too much for most people, a lot of the colours aren’t considered to be complimentary, they can be quite challenging together. I like colour and pattern but I’m not sure it’s not more about shock value than designing something the designer at least considers to be beautiful! I’d say the colours and designs are entirely interdependent as they reinforce each other.

Colour research: Wallace Sewell

What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour?
Does the colour use work well with the actual design?
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent

Wallace and Sewell design woven fabrics in modern palettes. Modern as in they appear inspired by mid century colour ways which have become very fashionable again. The colour proportions are pleasing, not challenging, well considered. As the designs are simple the colours are what defines these designs and they’ve used the colours and patterns well within their range of accessories.

Colour research: Cole & Sons

What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour?
Does the colour use work well with the actual design?
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent?

Cole & sons use a wide range of colours, appropriate to their designs. Some are mellow and some are bold and striking although most would be considered in the muted range of the colour spectrum. Their colour proportions are considered, they are pleasing on the eye, they don’t detract from the designs. I’d say the designs are definitely the attention grabber in their work and the colours are appropriate for the designs even if the designs are sometimes outlandish for on walls for example.

Colour research: Norma Starszakowna

What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour?
Does the colour use work well with the actual design?
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent?

Norma’s work appears based on rusty work items, denim, copper, steel, faded paper, stained unbleached cotton. Her colour use makes her work very identifiable. She uses a limited range of colours but they work very well within her designs. The colours to me say rusted, left behind, weathered, old, stained. It’s a calming palette. I’d say the colours are more important than the designs, I presume the colours informed the designs rather than the other way around. Her proportions are beautifully balanced, exiting but not challenging.

Colour research: Paul Smith

What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour?
Does the colour use work well with the actual design?
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent?

Paul Smith’s signature patterns are stripes, multi coloured thin stripes. His patterns are easily recognisable. The colours are the design really, it’s the way the colours are placed next to each other that provide the dynamic and the feel of the designs. Simple yet effective! The colours are mostly complimentary although not always obviously beautiful together but in a mix of many many colours they tend to work together very well.

Colour research: Vlisco

What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour?
Does the colour use work well with the actual design?
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent?

Vlisco patterns are bold, striking, exciting, colourful. Cartoon like solid black outlines and high contrast colours make for fabric that shout! Not for the shrinking violet. The colours sometimes clash and aren’t always obviously well proportioned but I feel some of that could well be culturally determined. I think the designs and the colours are very reliant on each other, and you can’t have one without the other, it just wouldn’t have the same feel at all.

Colour research: Ptolemy Mann

What (if any) is their signature way of using colour?
Do they demonstrate interesting proportions of colour?
Does the colour use work well with the actual design?
Which is more important, the colour or the design, or are they interdependent?

The colours are used playfully, with simple geometric shapes taking the main stage in the designs on the whole. The colour palette us usually well thought out but I feel the designs and the colours are of equal importance. The proportions are balanced, considered.

Project 1: colour palettes and proportion: exercise 3.1

part 1:pictures of fabric swatches and paint chips

Part 2 & 3: I very much enjoyed working with gouache paint (a new paint to me) and I loved working out how to mix the paints to match the fabric pieces I had chosen.

Chosing a piece of fabric and extending it out was great fun. The neutral fabric I chose was extremely hard to accurately extend as it’s crochet so I decided to show the pattern and the colours and make it more abstract rather than aiming for a perfect rendition and no doubt failing miserably as it was so complex. In all I love how it has worked out!

Part 3: research point 2

Online colour tools:

Adobe Color CC — is now only available as part of a membership which I’ve had extremely bad experiences with so I couldn’t experiment with this programme at all.

Mudcube Color Sphere looks interesting but there aren’t instructions on the site on how to use it so not very user friendly.

Colour Hailpixel I loved! Super easy and intuitive and great for putting fun palettes together.

Color Hunter Color Hunter lets you upload images and it then extracts colour palettes from this. Great idea but i found it consistently came up with much more muted colours than were actually in the photo. Shame.

ColRD Without instructions and I have to say I couldn’t make head nor tail of it. Maybe not helped that the screen jumped around on my phone.

Exercise 3.2 Translation through yarn