Merry Christmas and a Happy 2014!!!!

With the best wishes of love, peace, health and prosperity for everybody from

Isabel de Yzaguirre,

La Colorista.

Colours by Culture, an infographic.

Shared today in Google+ by Lori Sawaya, from The Land of Color, I picked this interesting infographic which showcases prefectly how colours have different meanings according to different cultures. This should be carefully taken in account for designers and corporations when creating new products, specially when dealing with clients that come from a culture other than ours. The image comes from Top Web Design Schools. Enjoy! 

Source: TopWebDesignSchools.org

Isabel de Yzaguirre,

La Colorista

Colour Trends in the first half of the year.

According to what Tamsin Kingswell says in Mix Trends Newsletter, which  I'm subscribed to, the Summer is a good time to make an overview of colour trends as seen in the first half of the year.In Tamsin's words, "So far we’ve noticed metallics broadening out to include all things shiny (much on show at DMY), a romance with clear materials or those with just a hint of a tint and our love affair with green going ever deeper into the forest with a lovely, almost Loden-like shade. And we still don’t seem to have shaken off the collective passion for pastels and neons although at Mix our enthusiasm is waning fast. Instead we are waiting for a move towards darker, more sober colours that counterbalance all that candyfloss knocking about at the moment. "

From what I've seen in the streets here in the small Barcelona's area village where I live, I can confirm the love of pastels and neons among people, together with emerald green and floral colors such as pink, red and sunny yellow.

Cal Gavi, Moià (Barcelona).

Photo credits and colour  palette by

(c)-Isabel de Yzaguirre Maura, 2013.

www.lacolorista.com

Vividly Colored Chairs: guest post by Mari from Arcadian Home

About a year ago, I published a guest post on "Decorating with Floral Art",by Arcadian Home. Today I'm very pleased to host AH again with a post on Vividly Colored Chairs, which suits perfectly my love of Color!

Isabel de Yzaguirre,

La Colorista.

Hello, lovely readers! 

I'm from Arcadian Home blog which is a wonderful place for home decor inspirations. There you will find lots of great creative ideas for everything from decorative trays to big wall art and much more. Today, we're going to talk about one of my favorite pieces of furniture. I love all things related to home interiors, but chairs are at the top of my list of furniture obsessions. I am especially fond of colorful chairs, so that's what this little visual tour is all about. Please enjoy! Thanks for letting me stop by to share. ~ Mari 

A project come true: The Four Seasons Mural for a School's yard.

Whoever has followed me since three years ago maybe remembers a  post on a Mural Project for Josep Orriols i Roca School's yard. The School is located in Moià (Barcelona, SPAIN).

I published the project for the first time when I had been working on it for about nine month, and I had serious doubts about its being  painted because of economical crisis in Spain. But luckily parents were very willing to see it done, and to let their sons and daughters have a more colourful School, no matter what it might cost. They organized events to collect money and provided all the colours that I had specified, whith the sponsoring of our local Paints Store. 

Today I can say the mural has come to life and am offering a view of the whole process until its completion.

The initial goal was to have some of the concrete walls of the yard decorated, and we chose the one in the sight: 

La Colorista, 2010.

My project aimed at representing the colours in the natural landscapes around our village all along the Four Seasons of the Year, in the same order that we experience them since the School Term begins: from Fall to Summer. Colours were picked from photographs shot in Moià's surroundings, and the proposed design was this one:

The Four Seasons' Mural, Isabel de Yzaguirre Maura

(La Colorista),2011.

The meaning of Colour in Marketing. And in Interior Design.

A few days ago I found this interesting Infographic on the meaning of colours applied to marketing. I'ts a good brief that can be perfectly applied to Interior Design. And since color increases readership, recognition and comprehension, I hope it will be helpful for you. Enjoy!

The Meaning Of Colour In Marketing infographic by AttwoodDigital.

Isabel de Yzaguirre, 

La Colorista.

Good networking practices in LinkedIn.

Dear readers of mine:

today I want to comment something that happend to me recently in LinkedIn. I write blog posts when I can and try always the content to be of interest. Then I share it in my groups trying to develop a good conversation. Lately I wrote two posts publishing interesting Houzz tours with my comment, and posted in my groups. I've always had a positive groupal behaviour, I think: I've been respectful and have tried to make my contribution to others...

Isabel de Yzaguirre, IdY.
La Colorista.

It happens that I publish my content from Bloggers directly to LinkedIn, and I've stated that slide presentations don't show when linked. Instead of that, my photo and Bloggers profile was shown, though I linked to the post. I usually had been posting my content in Color related groups, but since I belong to many Interior Design groups, I thought my posts on Color could be of  interest. And I must state that I had a great and very welcoming response, and a great contribution of fellow Interior Designers on developing conversations on Color. If you scroll down in my blog, you will see that I wrote two of this posts with Houzz content lately. I had a great feedback in general, but had a bad surprise as well. Having had a comment in a group, and wanting to thank it, I came to discover that I had been blocked there! I was shocked, I admit!!!

Then I discovered that my latest posts showed my photo and Bloggers' profile instead of the post content. Could this be the cause why someone flagged my contribution? Could be, of course. But it happened only two times before I realized my mistake, and nobody warned me through any kind of comment or private message, which is the procedure I think should have been followed. Simply put, someone flagged me once and I was blocked! I wrote to the group owner to explain myself and ask him his reconsidering my  being blocked in this Interiors group, but I haven't had any response. I understand group owners are busy, and I understand that spamming is annoying. But I didn't mean to spam the group at all. In fact there were many people interested in what I posted and that engaged in a very interesting conversation, where everybody shared his/her thoughts on the subject. And I wasn't given a single chance when flagged by someone. 

So here go my thoughts: I revised what could have happened and detected the possible cause of the blocking. And the lesson I've learnt: if you post a link from your blog, be careful to do it with an interesting introducing question on the subject, that can begin an interesting conversation. Be careful not to be too showy of yourself or not to seem to be too showy. Even if you think you are behaving correctly, make sure nobody can think on the contrary, for we never know enough about others' level of sensibility.

For me it has been a very unpleasant experience, since I've always tried to be kind to everybody and never post negative criticism on  other people works, posts and blogs. But this happened to me and I've tried to learn from this experience. I'd love to know your thoughts on this question and I hope that this can help others as well. Let me finish with  my best wishes for a wonderful Year 2013 to everybody, which I didn't before for personal reasons.

See you soon with more posts on Color and Interior Design!

Isabel de Yzaguirre,

La  Colorista.