ColorSchemer Blog

While people are gearing up for October with all kinds of breast cancer events and fundraisers, there’s another growing group of people spreading the word across the internet.

Pink for October is a campaign that started last year, in 2006 with a small group of web designers who wanted to design their web sites with a pink theme in order to bring awareness to the cause.

“Web sites will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research.”
~ Official Pink for October site

That small group quickly grew into more than 1500 people, including many non-designers. This year they’re hoping to see many more people joining in. If you have a website and you have creative control over it, consider “going pink” and posting a note about the Pink for October campaign.

Aside from just redecorating, participants can also share stories and help raise funds to support breast cancer research.

Some help for non-designers

If you’re not a web designer but would like to “go pink” with the rest of them, don’t worry. There are plenty of web templates out there with pink themes. If you’re a Wordpress user, try the Wordpress Theme Viewer and search for pink.

I’ve also developed a couple for you myself, which you can find on my downloads page. I haven’t been able to find any quality templates outside of Wordpress, but in many cases if you contact the designer of the theme they may give you permission to convert it to another platform if you give them credit for the design. You may also have some luck with the Wikipedia entry. There are some other types of templates listed there.

Pink Inspiration

For those who want to design your own web site, here are a few color schemes for inspiration:

You may also do a search in the Gallery for “pink“, or even “pink for october“, and if you create a theme yourself, why don’t you add the “pink for october” tag so others can find it.

Posted by guest blogger Natalie Jost. Natalie is a web designer and a lover of all things color. You can read her blog at standardsforlife.com.

Buried among the bigger product announcements coming out of today’s much anticipated media event, Apple announced a refresh of their iPod Nano and Shuffle lines.

Besides some new features and a fatter form factor for the Nano, both the Nano and Shuffle are now available in a few fresh new colors:

iPod Nano

iPod Shuffle

Having not seen them in person yet, these muted, Spring-like colors appear to be a drastic change from the sleek, vibrant, “hip” Nano/Mini colors Apple has chosen in the past.

And something tells me those silhouette commercials just wouldn’t have been as cool with a robins-egg blue background from these new iPods…

We’re going to be adding a little something to the ColorSchemer blog every couple of weeks by showing various color schemes based on a single color theme – and you can participate!

Each time we post a color theme, we’ll mention the theme for the next article in the series. You’ll have a week to post your color scheme ideas (with a special tag) to the ColorSchemer Gallery and we’ll feature the best ones in the next color theme post, along with a credit to you as the submitter.

To get things started, the theme this week is all about the color blue.

Vintage Bookmark

The first place I found inspiration this week was a simple vintage looking bookmark from Peridot Press. These are great muted colors that can inspire anything from interior design to web design.

Squidfingers Graphic

Next is a plain blue wallpaper graphic from Squidfingers. Travis Beckham has put together an extensive inventory of wallpaper graphics perfect for website backgrounds and this one perfectly blends two very cool blues which, in the way they’re blended, actually look like more than two shades of blue.

ferm LIVING Wallpaper

This wallpaper pattern from ferm LIVING (physical wallpaper that is) only uses one shade of blue but it’s such a rich blue green I had to share. Mixed with a creamy white, it really makes the feathers pop. It just shows a color scheme doesn’t have to have more than two colors to make a statement. In fact, in many cases, the fewer the colors the better.

Katja Behre Wallpaper

Brown is a common partner for blue. It’s a nice neutral color that enriches whatever shade of blue it partners with, in this case a turquoise shade. This is a beautiful wallpaper from designer Katja Behre.

Laura Ashley Wallpaper

Going with a lighter brown and a lighter blue is this wallpaper design from Laura Ashley.

Multi-colored Rug

This “Pooky Rug” moves us into a brighter, more playful display of blue with a few more colors. It makes for a fun color scheme that’s still on the neutral side.

Wrapping Paper

Finally, proving you don’t have to have a lot of blue to cool down a warm scheme, is this wrapping paper from The Paper Source. They actually have a lot of beautiful papers in this pattern and others like it. It’s worth a look for a lot of inspiration and for lots of neat different kinds of paper.

Next Theme: Red

Next time we’ll look at another primary color: red. So upload your red color schemes to the Gallery, and tag them with the keyword “red“. For each scheme you contribute, it’s helpful if you can:

• briefly explain what inspired the scheme
• share a little info about yourself: a link to your blog or website if you have one, for example.
• link to a photo or URL that inspired the scheme

Or, if you used any special features of ColorSchemer, tell us that too.

Then keep an eye on out for your schemes in a future article!

Posted by guest blogger Natalie Jost. Natalie is a web designer and a lover of all things color. You can read her blog at standardsforlife.com.

Following up on the ingenious color-changing coffee lids, here’s another neat idea to make your coffee-drinking experience even better: color-matching coffee mugs.

From the maker:

“Mugs to help you mix your favourite brew to just-how-you-like-it by matching the colour guide on the inside. Available in Tea or Coffee styles.”

Just add milk/cream/sugar/etc to match your drink with the color of your choice for the perfect cup, then enjoy!

Posted by guest blogger Natalie Jost. Natalie is a web designer and a lover of all things color. You can read her blog at standardsforlife.com.

Now here’s an ingenious product: Sydney-based Smart Lid Systems has developed a coffee lid that uses color to let you know when it’s safe to drink your beverage.

If your drink is too hot, the normally-brown lid will turn bright red to warn you that you’re about to burn your mouth. And if it isn’t sealed properly on the top of cup, the lid shows spots of brown to indicate it’s loose.

McDonalds could have used this product a few years ago when they lost a lawsuit for $2.9 million (later reduced to $640,000) to a woman who burned herself and filed suit because her coffee was too hot. And I could have used this last week when I burned the roof of my mouth and couldn’t taste anything for 2 days.

Over the last few years, all of the major browsers have included support for a special set of 140 colors that are recognized by their color name within HTML or CSS code.

This means that rather than having to remember that the color orange is specified with the hex code “#FFA500″, you can simply type the word “orange” when specifying a color in your code and the browser will automatically translate it to its hex code.

Below is a handy reference list of all 140 browser-supported named colors, which you can quickly sort by color family or name.

Perhaps taking a cue from Apple and the various colors they offer on many of their products, Dell has gone a step further and created a new tool to help you find the accessories that match your favorite color and style.

Just select your favorite color from the swatches listed on the page, and then the tool will highlight all of the categories that contain products available in your color.

Looking for some green headphones to match your new green iPod Shuffle? No problem. Wishing you had a pink mouse to go with your favorite pink t-shirt? Wish no more. Searching for a brown carrying case to hold your brown Zune? Well, you’re probably not (since I’ve never actually seen a Zune on the streets), but Dell makes it easy to find those too.

I’m glad to see that companies are beginning to realize that color is not a “one-size-fits-all” component of the product, but rather an opportunity to let customers personalize and develop a connection with their products.

Do you own a product that’s offered in multiple colors (iPod, laptop, etc)? What color is it? Why did you pick that color?

Found via Digg, I thought that the web geeks out there might be able to appreciate this license plate:

And for those who are a little confused, “FF0000″ is the HTML hex code for the color red…

What do Safeway, Walgreens, and Costco have in common? The obvious answer is that they are all large operated American supermarkets. But do you think it’s any coincidence that these three grocery stores – along with others like Winn-Dixie, Wawa, Giant, and Supervalu – all use red in their logo?

A color psychologist would tell you that this is no surprise: red is the color that makes people hungry. Red instantly attracts attention and it also makes people excited, energetic, and increases the heart rate.

In the fast-food industry, look no further than McDonalds, Wendy’s, or Burger King as prime examples of this. These massive companies all have a large amount of red in their branding as well, which subconsciously lets customers know that the chain is high-energy, bustling, and most importantly fast.

Red seems to have color dominance with regards to actual food products, as well. If red foods such as tomatoes, strawberries, and apples aren’t a natural part of the product, often times red packaging is used instead, such as with Coke, Skittles, and Campbell’s Soup. Mmm… maybe you’re hungry now?

A Natural Exception

One notable exception to the red grocery store craze can be found in the new wave of healthy, natural grocery stores popping up, led by Whole Foods. Whole Foods keeps its insignia green. Their decision to use green as the dominant color in their branding helps to promote the fresh, organic selling point they want to be associated with, as green signifies nature.

But even then, stores are finding ways to combine the freshness of green with the energy and impulses associated with red. MOM’s is a great example of a company walking a tightrope with it’s branding, tying in elements of the traditional red with a more earthy green.

So when it comes to food, food branding, and packaging, companies have learned that red is king. Think about that the next time you’re walking into your local supermarket or waiting in line at the drive-thru.

If you’re a Mac developer and you’re planning to attend Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco next week, shoot me an email – I’d love to meet up, say hello, and chat.