Ever had an experience that made you think of things in a different way?
Myself, I was senior designer, creating interior textile collections for Project Moygashel, the first was about to launch. With input from the sales team, I had created a collection of five colour stories. One of them I was never happy with but for me it covered a gap with the depth, tone and vibrancy that had been requested.
However, on taking this collection to Dubai for its launch, that particular colourway took on a whole new meaning. Light is different around the world; we all think it is the same but that is far from the truth. As I travelled the world with that collection, each colourway shone in different continents, teaching me a life long lesson.
Colour is alive, it moves as we do, it changes from one room to another, if you have artificial light on or off and so from one climate to another. The differences can be very noticeable sometimes subtle. There may be times we think we can control it however it is ‘free’ in a sense and our visual eye can only process what we are receiving.
So, if you are designing something for a brighter climate, brighter cleaner colours will suit. They may seem a bit extreme but once in situ they will truly shine. For the climate here in Ireland we can handle softer colours with ease, the clean bright pure colours stand out more.
This also applies to fashion, think of your holiday clothes, they tend to be a little more vibrant than winter clothes. We used to have a summer and winter wardrobe and colours changed due to the time of year, darks were not ‘normal’ for the spring summer wardrobe, it tended to be brighter and cleaner. Now with cultural changes we do not want to have two seasons to cater for, clothes that can move from one season to the next are part of the staple wardrobe. How times have changed, this season will be full of dark backgrounds on floral summer dresses. Winter colours can be highlighted with bright accents.
All colours have a place, it is just how we use and position them that matters. Nature is a good source of knowledge for what works!
We are lucky to live in this world full of colour- it changes constantly. Even without us noticing.
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