I thought I would pass along a little advice given by Dean Sickler of Dundean Studios that has come in handy (yet again) this week. It was back in 1998 and I was taking one of his classes. He said to us, “Let me give you a little color advice. If you continue in this career, this tip alone will be worth the cost of the class.”
Dean’s Tip: If you are working with two colors that are not meshing well and something is off, mix a little of each color into the other. Voila! Each color will take on some of the properties of the other and they will magically start to flow better.
Trust me, I never forgot those words and he was prophetic: they certainly have been worth the cost of the class.
Speaking of color, I recently received my Color Association newsletter. They are one of a few companies that forecast, research and archive color. They also provide color trend information to various industries 14 months in advance. Every year, theirs is one of the reports I look to for guidance in the colors to keep in mind while creating new sample boards. Their site is pretty interesting — take a gander, if you’d like. Their newsletter advised of an informative article written by their former director, Margaret Walch. She recently took a trip to Chile and wrote about its architecture, use of color and also threw in a bit of history. It’s a nice read. (I love learning about the use of color in other countries. I wrote a bit about mine in The Colors of Guatemala.)
Have a great day!
