On pantone.com the rationale behinds this colour choice reads:

The 2011 color of the year, PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle, encouraged us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. Tangerine Tango, a spirited reddish orange, continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward.

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

Tangerine Tango is a very visual word, although tango is traditionally associated with a deep red (combined with black), more so than an orange colour.

Off course this announcement works as a marketing stunt for Pantone it self, but never the less, the previous colours of the year have featured prominently in fashion and design thorughout that particular year. See for yourself!

As colour increases brand recoqnition by 80%, many brands try to claim ownership of one specific colour or a colour combination. One of the most succesfull brands in the world to do this is Coca Cola and their ownership of the colour red.

Coca Cola is in fact responsible for  the red and white colour of Santa Claus. Santa was originally seen in mostly green, blue or auburn garments. But in 1931 the illustrator Haddon Sunbloom was briefed on creating a specific Coca Cola version of Santa for their christmas campagin. Sunbloom used one of the Coca Cola sales reps as a model for the rotound and jolly Santa Claus and painted him in the Coca Cola brand colours.

What started of as a branding excersize has now become a tradition. Today we can’t  imagine that Santa Claus is any other colour than red and white.

To the rigth the ad in its entirety.

The visual style focuses on differentiating the various activites from the wearing down the floor at the rehearsal studio, the practica, the casual tango bar Vuelvo al Sur to the elegant Poema tango ball.

This Urquiza style of tango elegantly punctuates the figures of the dance with adornments. The typography is therefore also embelished!

The graphics are inspired by  how the tango was originally communicated in Buonas Aires.

The website of Tango Urquiza is currently being redesigned as well.

Model Vuelvo al Sur: Maria Wandell
Photographer: Lotte Bro Barnkob

I once worked at a studio specialising in design for broadcast. During briefs the clients often asked for “colour and movement”. A sure thing for design that is already animated across a TV screen.

But colour does have the power to create depth and movement even on one stingle still frame – sometimes  to the point of deception. The degree of subtle grading of colour from lighter to darker hues – or from dim to bright colours that depth and movement is achieved. Using degrees of neutral or subtle colours will further enhace the 3D feel.

Have a look at these beautiful examples of transparency and depth from some of my colour students: Nanna, Benedicte and Anja.

Check this one out by Benedicte – isn’t it beautiful? It’s almost like looking at eternity…

Ittens seven contrasts are:

1) Contrast of Hue

2) Light-dark contrast

3) Cold-Warm contrast

4) Complementary Contrast

5) Simultaneous Contrast

6) Contrast of Saturation

7) Contrast of amount of colour

Tiggerposen

Af La Fontaine

Da Gud havde skabt alle dyrearter,
fra myre og spidsmus til leoparder,
og alle de andre væsner, der er.

Da spurgte han: ”Vil I beklage jer?
I kan bede om hvad som helst, der kan bedes,
hvis I vil have det lavet anderledes.
Er der noget, der blev skævt på skabelsesdagen,
så bare sig til, så retter jeg sagen”.

Først spurgte han da den lille abe,
om den var tilfreds med, at han lod den skabe.
Og aben sagde med en stille gaben:
”Det bedste du skabte – det var da aben,
jeg er ganske tilfreds for egen regning,
men bjørnen ligner en mislykket tegning.
Jeg synes dens ydre er en skandale,
så jeg sådan ud lod jeg mig aldrig male.”

”Er jeg?” sagde bjørnen ”den manglefulde,
nej, jeg blev da formet præcis, som jeg skulle.
Men alt er jo ikke komplet, det er sandt,
jeg er glad, at jeg ikke er født elefant,
at den kom til verden, det er en skandale,
jeg mener den næste! De ører! Den hale!

Elefanten var glad for snablen og halen
og sagde at Guds eneste uheld var hvalen.
Og myren grinede stygt af miden
og sagde: ”Det kan være, den vokser med tiden.”

Og Gud lod dem gå, men faldt stille i tanker,
de roste sig selv og så andres skavanker.

Det smiler han af deroppe i himlen,
og dog er vi mennsker de værste i vrimlen.
Vi finder en masse hos andre at klandre.
Vi tilgir’ os selv, men aldrig de andre.
Man ser de værste fejl hos sin næste,
men hos sig selv, der ser man det bedste.
De andres fejl optager mest vores tanker,
skønt alle blev født med de samme skavanker.
Men hemmeligheden ved skabelsen ligger
i, at enhver blev født som en tigger.
I forlommen lader vi næstens fejl komme,
mens egne fejl gemmes til bagerste lomme

“If wishes come in rainbow colors then,
I would send the brightest one to say Happy Holi.” 

( Typical Happy Holi text message.) 

Holi is celebrated in February or early March India, Pakistan and Nepal. Holi festival has an ancient origin and celebrates the triumph of ‘good’ over ‘bad’. The colorful festival bridges the social gap and renews relationships. On this day, people throw coloured powder and hug and wish each other ‘Happy Holi’.

The festival does not recognizes any bars of caste, class or creed. Drenched in colours, everybody comes to resemble each other losing their original self. This is the beauty of this festival. Its uniqueness lies in the fact that this festival treats everybody as equals, all differences dissolve in the coloured water that flows in plenty in it.

Holi calls to put an end to any hard feelings that might have cropped up during the year. People apply colour and give each other a friends hug as they greet Holi, the tradition is called, ‘Holi Milan’. It is strongly believed that even enemies turn friend on the day of Holi.

Usually, after a heavy and energetic day of colourful Holi people dress themselves in new clothes and visit friends and relatives with a packet of sweets. This exchange of sweets helps to strengthen and bring joy in relationships.

The tradition of the Colour Festival as a fun and creative idea has spread all over the world  such as at the Swiss Club in Cairo, Egypt, celebrating Holi in the month of september.

Have a look here at some amazing photos from the Holi festival 2011.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/holi_the_festival_of_colors.html

Looking at colour and weight. Are some colours percieved as being heavier? Yes!

And learning to master the seven colour contrasts devised by Itten.

The Lüscher colour test is a psychological test invented by Dr. Max Lüscher in Basel, Switzerland. He believed that sensory perception of colour is objective and universally shared by all, but that colour preferences are subjective, and that this distinction allows subjective states to be objectively measured by using test colours.

Lüscher believed that because the colour selections are guided in an unconscious manner, they reveal the person as they really are, not as they perceive themselves or would like to be perceived.

http://www.colorquiz.com/