News and Projects with Marta Aymerich and some changes in La Colorista®

This year I haven't written much in this blog, and this isn't good at all, at least for marketing oneself... But summer vacation is a good time for keeping in touch and here I go!

Today I'm presenting my good friend  Marta Aymerich, from Marta Aymerich Emotional Comunication. She is a great designer, from head to toe: her designs are fresh, clean and contemporary and so is she!  

Kate Smith  put us in touch in 2011, and from that day a good friendship has been growing between the two of us. Currently we are collaborating in very encouraging projects  and I want to present her to you:

Marta&Isabel

Image by Humberto Pérez Padilla, ARTIST.

How color can help a community: the Heidelberg project.

Today I found this interesting post in Houzz that shows how a Color and Art project has helped to save the Heildelberg and Elba street neighborhoods from being demolished. Making a turn to the CMG slogan, we can state that "Color helps".
How powerful a tool to help others!!!

Decorated Houses Help Save a Detroit Neighborhood

Houzz

I hope you enjoy it and remember that colour can help in Healthcare Design as well. Be happy!!!

Isabel de Yzaguirre,

La Colorista.

Guest blog by Joanna from Design Shuffle: Wonderfully Colorful Walls!

Hi! I’m Joanna, a writer for Design Shuffle, a terrific site featuring everything interior design. On the site you can find the latest designs from prominent designers and up-to-the minute news on the interiors industry. I LOVE my work. I get to spend my time searching the Internet and shelter mags for the most beautiful interior designs and bring them together to share on blogs like La Colorista. Thanks for letting me share today!

If you’re not faint of heart when it comes to wearing or decorating with bright colors, then you know the joy of a boldly hued outfit or interior space. I especially love color, but have a hard time committing to just one. That isn’t a problem for the designers of the rooms below. They went all out when choosing colors that pop for their walls.

 

A wall doesn’t have to be a solid color to be bold and bright. This wall has all the colors of the rainbow and becomes a cohesive burst of wonderful color.

 

An accent wall in a modern home office acts as a decorative entrance to a master bedroom.

 

This dining room (from the same home as above) is full of character and personality with its red and purple

accents.

 

All pretty in pink, this bedroom design wears the color beautifully. This would be a lovely room to awaken to every morning, don’t you think?

 

This fun retro room full of 60s charm would be a blast to hang out in with its comfy, stylish seating and brilliant colors.

.

Mum’s the word in this pretty corner spot. I love the pink velvet chaise and the dramatic black chandelier.

 

This room may seem as if it is shouting, “look at me!” but I find it dramatic and chic. Does it inspire any ideas for your bedroom design, den design, or any other part of your home?

 

Honeysuckle and silver cover a bold wall over a daybed. The silhouette adds personality along with rich textures and hues on the throw pillows.

Images 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 

Longing for even more colorful inspiration? Then head on over to Design Shuffle where you can explore various interior design styles and browse through the portfolios of Chicago interior designers and more!

Celebration!

I'm feeling so happy, I have something to celebrate! This blog devoted to Colour has reached 10.000 visits this week!

Via Pinterest

I want to celebrate with friends and visitors. Which could be the best way to? A colourful one, maybe?

Let's send colourful inviting cards...

Via Semigloss Chic

... dress up in a colourful way!

Jessica Colaluca via Pinterest

Arrange a warm welcoming ambient...

Via Coco Kelley

...prepare food with the colours of the rainbow...

Via Tablespoon

...serve colourful drinks...

Via Tablespoon

... have colourful candies...

Via Pretty Things

And let's have specially a sweet Coloured Anniversary Cake!

Which of these do you like best?

Via Martha Stewart Weddings

By Bijoux Doux

By Baked Ideas

By Kakes by Karen

All of them wear colours I love. Which are your favorite colours?

If you want to, I can help you to choose Colour, just contact me!

The year of La Colorista.

If I look backwards, this has been a busy year! 

I had decided to go back to Art Classes in 2010, and there I explored color with Mrs. Marina Berdalet, and I went on in 2011. Those were Happy Days!

Liliums, by Isabel.

I begun doing digital Colour Paletes, just because I liked to. I thank Jaume Orriols for his Photoshop classes. Also  Joan Sunyer Moret, for teaching me some pro tricks and for his conceptual and technical help with my La Colorista logos and card. And Hornbeck Design Partners were so kind to let me use their Monterrey photograph for my now Insignia Palette:

Monterrey Palette.

I wanted to learn Color Consultancy in a more scientific way that I had been taught at the Art School. There are no such studies in Spain and I looked for Online Classes. The one that looked the best was by Sensational Color. I wasn't disappointed at all. I earned my Color for Your Home Consultant Certification with Color Expert Kate Smith. She was and excellent teacher and now is a friend!

In the last days of 2010 I had bought the domain lacolorista.es and very shyly opened a Facebook bizz Page. Now it has 218 followers! To all of you, many, many thanks!!!

I have  gone on publishing my blog in three languages, and this means writing three blogs in one. My English one is the more read and has lead me a lot of traffic -don't forget, I'm a small fish... I have gone from about 3000 visits in the beginning of 2011 to nearly 9000 today. I could never have imagined that. So, to all that have come here to read my posts, or maybe just to have a look at them, many thanks for spending part of your time here!!!

I have tried to do things in my way and have explored trends as well. And my 2011 more read posts have been:

Colors of the Year 2011: which one you choose?

466 visualizations

Mural project for a School's Yard

426 visualizations.

AzkoNobel's Colour for the Year 2012, Juicy Ripe Red

358 visualizations.

And the Winning Award goes to:

Tangerine Tango, Pantone's Color of the Year 2012!

586 visualizations until this moment.

Maybe this will seem not much to some, but I had never dreamed of being read by so much people!

To end this yearly review, I designed my logo and card and am launching my service locally.I had Joan Moret's help as mentioned above. But I have a special thank you for Color Expert Teresa Tullio, who kindly offered some free ideas from which my current logo was bornt.

And I have made many wonderful Color Friends. So what else could I ask for? 

Just one thing: please, come back in 2012!!!

Happy New Year to all!!!

Barcelona's Art Déco Palette 1

La Colorista

With this one, I begin a sequence of posts on the colours from Barcelona.At the same time that  I try to capture hues, I will explain a few things, in few words, on the chosen places. 

Today I'm leading you to the Modernist or Art-Decó colour palette shown in one of the Houses that were constructed in Parc Güell. Built from 1900 to 1914, the "Parc Güell" was the main work, and the most complete, from Antoni Gaudí, who was comissioned to construct a Park-City according to the model of the ones raised in England in the second half of the XIX th. century. Gaudí, who conceived his work as a closed and fenced residential area provided with all the necessary services, was helped by the also catalan architects Josep Mª Jujol and Joan Rubió i Bellver.

In this photo, correspondig to the so called "Rose House" where Gaudí lived for 20 years, you can observe one of the decorating techniques practiced in this period, called sgraffitto, -in the window borders and also in the façade. It was made scratching through a surface to reveal a lower layer of a contrasted colour. Here we have rich muted tones of rose and red together with sandy beige, which contrast with black in the forged-iron fence and a dark shade of green in the window's wooden blinds. If the day had been a sunny one, this bunch of colours would be enhanced by the bright blue of our Mediterranean sky. I'm sure you would love to visit this wonderful place.

More to come...

P.D. - In catalan we call "Modernisme" the period you know as Art-Déco and Art Noveau in English (I have come to observe that you call Modernism to what we know as Rationalism... Just to avoid misinterpreting!)

Mural project for a School's Yard

Busy as I was with my Colour for Your Home Consultant Certification at Sensationalcolor, I had given up writing in my blogs for an essential lack of time. Now that I have finished my Winter Class, here I am with a very special project I did in 2010-11. This is  a Mural Project to decorate a concret wall in a yard at the school  where I work, in Moià (Barcelona, SPAIN). I began it in summertime and delivered my work in January. I tried to capture the colours that we can find in nature in different yearly Seasons. Then I translated them into an imagined landscape that shows the Seasons in the same order in which we enjoy them at School, from September to June. From the left of the image to its right we go from Autumn to Summer. And from the bottom to the top of the wall are represented the colours from earth to sky, also according to the Seasons. Here is the final sketch:

 La Colorista

This is the wall to be painted:

La Colorista

I picked colours from photos that I had shot in all the annual Seasons and I produced this first messy colour palette ( I have a bit more of phtoshop knowledge right now, but this is a little bit naïve and I love it, between us...) :

La Colorista

After that I translated colours to printable ones  in Pantone Solid Coated, and I arranged seasonal groups and a colour palette for every Season. I have used many colours -not all of them- in the final project. Here you are my Seasonal Colour Palettes:

Winter colour palette, La Colorista

Spring colour palette, La Colorista .

Summer colour palette, La Colorista

Autumn colour palette, La Colorista

As unluckily we are suffering a tough economical recession, our annual  School's budget has currently been reduced about a twenty per cent and we don't know when the mural will be painted. But pupils, parents and my peer teachers seem to love the project and want it done as it is. So I'm feeling happy!!! What else could I ask for?

My next goal is specialising in colour for Architectural Exteriors. Will it be possible for me to fly to USA in 2012? I'd love to!

Colors of the Year 2011: which one you choose?

Citrus Yellow is one of the trendy colors this year 2011:

Font

Chosen by multinational AzkoNobel, owner of prestigious paint  brands in many countries, as their Color 2011, it contrasts strongly with Pantone's proposed hue, Honeysuckle Pink. In one hand I must state I wouldn't dare to paint an accent wall with such a strong bold color.In the other, I think this pink can work very well in fashion:

Font

Font 

I think also it can lighten  and enhance an Interior as a punch of color in some complements and make it look springlike:

 Font

Citrus yellow seems to work best for more extensive use in Interiors in its different hues, from buttery  to sherbet yellow, from canary yellow to the most bright and saturated hues of it.

Font

Let's look at this kitchen as an instance. Published in Apartment Therapy Trends 2001 Report it shows yellow in an up-to-date design. Enlightened by white cabinetry and in a bold contrast with the rich brown of the wooden floor, it sems to dialogue by analogy with the peach orange color in the next room. Some punchs of green here and there balance the whole composition.

 In Fashion we can find all kind of clothings and complements in this warm and yet refreshing color:

Font

 With what I love best from all these I have made my own Trendy Palette 2011. Enjoy!

If you are in Catalonia and would love to update your Home's Color and Décoration, I'm here to help you.
Just contact me and let's talk!

Happy Holidays and a Colourful 2011!!!

Autumn Tableware Palette

Autumn Tableware Palette

A few time ago I was asked for my friend designer Joan Moret to create a Color Palette for a Seasonal Tableware in Murano Compatible Glass. I made some investigation and through Ceramist Matoko Araki knew of the japanese tradition to change the Tableware according to the Season of the year. In Japan people have special names for the hues of leaves in the Fall Season and I searched for some inspirational images from there.And these are the colors I selected from the pictures. I imagined how they would look in the precious materials that were supposed to be employed to make an Autumn Tableware and I just loved them!

I made an attempt to draw and paint some plates and dishes, with the help of Photshop and this palette, though not being an expert, and they looked like this:

It was a funny exercise to test some possible combinations to do. As you see, I'm not a real Tableware designer, but I enjoyed triying. I even did a Winter Tableware Palette, but I will show when the White Season begins.

My Summer Palette 2010

Original image by courtesy from Hornbeck Design Partners

As everybody interested in design knows, Turquoise Blue was declared to be 2010 Colour by Pantone early in January. Surfing LinkedIn I  got acquainted with Jack Bredenfoerder , Design Director at Landor Associates, and could read three really interesting blog posts on Colour by him. There he talks about colour trends for this Summer and explains the meaning of Blue Hues. To luminous tropical Turquoise reminding of a possible escape to Paradise, Jack adds International Klein Blue, which according to him "relates to people’s search for a global, let’s-work-together unifying color" and "represents not only the environmental challenges we must solve together but also the social and political ones".He suggests also  White, "which reflects a desire to simplify and clear the palette in an uncertain economy",Warm golden yellows, "which are linked to a desire for the stability of a new gold standard", and tropical colours as sunset purples and hot hibiscus reds.

 Interior of Danish summer house by LASC Studio

After reading his proposal, and having learnt that Colour Trends are set about three years in advance, I've made my own reflection on which ones I love for Summer, not only because of trends but looking at our Mediterranean colour traditions. There we have white in seashore houses' walls, and blue, green and even red for wooden doors and windows treatment since immemorial times... And of course browns for furnishings or floors. We only need some touch of colour here and maybe an accent wall there to enlighten a cool and relaxing ambient. Seeing this beautiful photo from Hornbeck Design Partners, a California based Interior Design Studio, I realized that in natural entourage we can find all  these colours in perfect harmony.That ensures the durability of my proposal, which I have made extracting the colours in the palette from those in the picture.

My choice is much of white, with some notes of blue maybe combining a range of them in some walls. Add natural browns in  floor treatments and furniture, and then some colour accents that will make the ambient warm. Do it in cushions, windows treatment, art and whatever you enjoy, from bright yellow to orange or leaves' green and ending in purples.This will make a relaxing but warm place to enjoy your summer season.

Turquoise, green and creamy hues indoors.
Colour accent with bunchs of flowers.

House of Turquoise

Kitchen treatment, from jenjhoner blog and published in

House of Turquoise.

Outdoors come indoors in flowing harmony

Published in House of Turquoise.