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Pantone

Pantone’s Color of the Year and Its Affect on Your Business

December 7, 2018

Christmas cactus in Pantone 16-1546

As the rest of us hunker down into the winter solstice—that cold, grey and shortest day of the year—the Pantone Color Institute just threw a splash of a party by announcing Living Coral as it’s 2019 Color of the Year. My Christmas cactus hits the tone perfectly (although this year it did Thanksgiving so we’ll have to nix the “living” part).

Quote by Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute

Pantone is a standardized color matching system. It originated specifically for the graphics industry but now you find it everywhere from fashion to furnishings. Each December, after extensive research, the Pantone Color Institute forecasts what color will bombard us in the upcoming year. They’re usually spot on.

As a designer, I find Pantone’s Color Intelligence invaluable. While I’m certainly not trendy in a fickle sense—after all, communicating my clients should not be based solely on the next 365 days—I do need to be aware of color and how it permeates our human thinking. For example, in 2016 I did a logo and website for The Blogging Bee, a one-time workshop for quilters. Research told me the average quilter is female and regularly updates her already extensive stash of fabric. Of course, she’s on top of color trends. So, of course, I used Pantone’s 2016 Color of the Year.

More recently I did an advertisement for The Cider Farm and it’s release of its 5-year-aged apple brandy. With 14,000 trees growing organically on 160 acres of Wisconsin farmland, you can bet no one’s thinking about colors of the year. Co-owner Deirdre Birmingham described their business as authentic, sophisticated and consistent. Their standards are inspired by European and American traditions. Given this, the strong, earthy tones of their brand are a perfect choice.

There’s a reason the Pantone Color Institute and designers put so much thought into color. Color affects our emotions, responses, behaviors…goodness, it even evokes perceptions to the taste of our food!

As you brand your business, what are your color ideas? Give me a jingle if you need some help!

Filed Under: branding, business, color, Pantone, small business  
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Creative Thinking for The Blogging Bee

April 5, 2016

The Blogging Bee logo

The Blogging Bee website, designed by Adunate.com

Last week Chris Kirsch and I were excited to kick off The Blogging Bee, a collaborative venture in teaching fiber-istas the fine art of blogging. Today I’m going to approach The Blogging Bee from an art director’s view. I want to share our creative thinking and explain just how it is campaigns such as ours come to be.

Our Challenge

One day months ago, Chris mentioned many of her fiber friends would love to blog but don’t know where to begin. Would I be interested in teaching them? I jumped at the idea. I regularly teach my clients to blog and they quickly learn it offers great benefits to their business.

And so, The Blogging Bee was born.

The Blogging Bee logo

Our Target Market

Quilters—all fiber artists, in fact—are as diverse as a patchwork quilt. Yet, according to a recent Quilting in America survey, the average “Dedicated Quilter” is female, about 64, well-educated (79% attended college), has a household income in excess of $100,000 and has been quilting an average of 20.3 years.

Quilters are becoming a tech savvy bunch. Five years ago when I introduced Chris to blogging, a concern was that many of her peers barely used email, let alone the internet. Today, she averages more than 1100 views a week on Chris Lynn Quilts. Quilters are looking to get cross-creative with their fiber art. They want to challenge the analytical side of their brain. Blogging is just the thing, especially when taught in a personalized, hands-on method—the very way they’ve been learning fiber techniques all these years.

The Blogging Bee website, designed by Adunate.com

Our Brand: A Romantic Contrast of Old and New

I have two antique sewing machines with drawers stuffed full of vintage gadgetries. Their emotional factor is priceless. They also create an interesting, if not paradoxical, brand. In addition to using them in our website imagery, I also started an Instagram photo series the week before our kickoff. I plan to continue this through April so be sure to check it out.

Here’s where the paradox happens: Even though our look is vintage, our design is trendy. And for very good reasons.

Our website uses a responsive framework, complete with scrolling navigation, full screen images and large text. Being mindful of our target market, we want to make our message easily readable on whatever device the viewer chooses.

We’re also trendy with color. Drumroll, please, for Pantone’s 2016 Colors of the Year: Rose Quartz and Serenity!

Pantone is the leading color authority and each year it introduces its attention-getting Color of the Year (this year it chose two). While Pantone is most associated with the printing industry, it inevitably sets the trend for interior design, fashion and…fiber arts. Naturally, this season’s fabrics will show lots of pink and blue, and with Dedicated Quilters spending an average of $3,296 annually on quilting-related purchases, you can bet they’ll notice this color trend.

Pantone poetically describes its 2016 colors as an “inherent balance between a warmer embracing rose tone and the cooler tranquil blue, reflecting connection and wellness as well as a soothing sense of order and peace.” Our goal was to bring this intrigue to our brand. The Blogging Bee is a romantic contrast of old and new, from the glorious tradition of quilting to the exciting, new levels of online technology.


If you’re in southeastern Wisconsin and want to learn blogging, check out The Blogging Bee. If you’re a business and want this same creative attention for your marketing, check out Adunate!

Filed Under: blogging, color, creative brief, creativity, fiber art, marketing, Pantone, project management, quilting  
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Wednesday Webs: Happy New Year!

January 2, 2013

The secret to getting ahead is getting started

The secret to getting ahead is getting startedI found this sign last summer in front of a Madison fitness salon. Good ol’ Mark Twain always says it best. And what better time to pull out such a motivating quote than the midst of winter and the first workday of the year!

So what are you doing to get ahead in 2013? How are you getting started?

  • Are you color trendy? Check out Pantone’s color for 2013.
  • In 2013, all you need to start a business is you, plus 21 more comments of encouragement (hiring Adunate is helpful too:-)
  • A list of cool apps for a productive 2013
  • 10 free 2013 calendar templates for creatives

Happy New Year everyone! God’s blessings on your upcoming year!

Filed Under: color, Pantone, Wednesday Webs  
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Wednesday Webs 7-6-11

July 6, 2011

C-Section Comics How smart phone users see each other

At yesterday’s AIGA Morning Blend, which happens to be my monthly fix of creative interaction, we shared the handy apps that rock both our work and after-work worlds.

Apps for freelance designers

  • WhatTheFont lets you whip out your phone, snap a picture of type, and identify it in seconds!
  • Tired of hauling around a Pantone swatchbook? myPantone compacts it nicely onto your phone for color verification anytime, anywhere.
  • A while ago I joined Pinterest for its home decor and photography. Ah, but it’s so much more. It could easily serve for project previewing, sharing or inspiration.
  • My prehistoric pen and planner have always been tried and true. But Action Method comes highly recommended as a time management tool—I just might give it a try.

Apps for full-time fun

  • Shopping, shopping—oh, so fun. Now it can be economical as well with PriceBlink’s comparative pricing and coupons.
  • I love YOGAmazing. Daily 30-minutes sessions of manageable yoga—Chaz, bring it on!
  • Share your life. Share your photos. Instagram makes it easy as one, two, three…cheeeze!
  • Are you a health nut? Instant Heartrate monitors your heartbeat in seconds with the touch of a finger.

And, of course, we can’t leave off this fun C-Section Comics. Where do you fit? Do you have a favorite app?

 C-Section Comics How smart phone users see each other

Filed Under: font, Pantone, productivity, self-employment, small business, social media, time management, Wednesday Webs, where I work  
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Color is Communication

February 8, 2011

Today was another meeting for my church’s fund appeal campaign.

You’ll recall St. Mark’s Lutheran, Watertown, WI, is raising money for its school’s building addition and renovation. I’m one of three people serving on the communications committee (three being the perfect number for such a group).

The appeal planning committee had previously decided to use the same logo for this second phase as we did for the first, with perhaps a change of color for a distinguishing factor. We communications people willingly obliged and set forth studying the theories of communicating with color.

Color Communication 101

God created us to be very visual beings. He beautified our world with an array of colors and each one communicates a message.

With this thought in mind, graphic designers use color as a tool when designing logos. In doing so, they consider two important things: #1) the audience and #2) the message.

In our case, the audience is our 3000 congregation members of varying ages (median is 37) and walks of life. Of course, when choosing a color for the logo we cannot choose someone’s favorite, can we? Because, after all, each of our 3000 members has their own favorite color.

Instead we choose colors by the message they communicate.

Our logo’s objective is to communicate one overall message: “We have an important task of sharing the good news of salvation to future generations—a task we can fulfill through our school.” Additionally, the logo should also convey these attitudes:

  • Excitement
  • Happiness
  • Youthfulness
  • Energy
  • Vitality
  • Forward-thinking

Orange and yellow do all of this. Orange is a color that demands an exclamation point! As Leatrice Eiseman says in Pantone Guide to Communicating With Color,” orange contains some of the drama of red, tempered by the cheerful good humor of yellow.”

She also says, “Of all color combinations in nature, yellow and black is the most unignorable,” making this a pow!, as in powerful, use of color.

Let’s do some comparisons:

Purple

Purple was our second choice of color.

Purple is royal. It’s conveys spiritualism and excitement. It also has a futuristic quality when used in the right hue.

Purple is glorious, but when it really comes down to it, it doesn’t communicate our message with the vibrancy that orange and yellow do.

Red

St. Mark’s team mascot is the lion and its colors are red and white. Wouldn’t red be an applicable color?

For many reasons, yes, it would. Red communicates energy, excitement and passion. It’s is a color that motivates the viewer to action.

Yet, red is also a color of heat. Fire. Cinders. Here in our logo, we have a child walking with a lamb and lion—something incomprehensible, except by God. We certainly don’t want to associate them with fire, as in hell fires!

Nope, red will not do this time.

Green

Here are the colors we used three years ago for our first campaign.

When we began this campaign, there was a pervading doubt within the congregation and members wondered how we could afford to renovate our school. Therefore, the logo had to convey trust. It needed to remind members of God’s words when he says “I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,” Jeremiah 29:11.

An initial color choice might have been blue. Blue is calming, meditative and spiritual. Dark blue conveys credibility and trustworthiness, which is why you often see financial institutions or policemen in navy.

Yet, blue wasn’t the right color.

This was a school project. It was for our children. It was about life. And when we began this campaign, it was before the big economic bust, a time when everyone was thinking green, sustainable and resourceful. Green communicates all of these things, plus more—it communicates generosity, a very necessary factor as we started our project.

Color is such an awesome thing, isn’t it? It’s a creation of God. It not only beautifies our world, it communicates a message.

So there you have it—the true theory of color.

Very awesome indeed.

Filed Under: color, Communicating Christ, education, fund appeals, graphic design, logos, non-profit, Pantone, schools, stewardship  
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ah-du-NAH-tay [Latin: to unite] Uniting graphic design, copywriting & blessings of life. Sustainable ag, art, faith, food, nature & travel.

Instagram post 2193223300520190199_1477617082 Shared with permission, from Women in Ag. This is why I love doing business with these ladies! Read on...
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