A series of articles featuring personal observations about color and design.
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I've been working on several big projects in recent months relating to tartans and Scots-Irish genealogy. As things usually go with me and big projects, I eventually reach a point where the research, organization, coding, and time required to complete the project starts overshadowing the passion. I need a break.
And so I turn to what I think of as my virtual box of crayons, and start playing with colors. Usually I start by looking at Pantone Color Trends, then incorporate whatever other ideas that have been fighting to work their way out of the gray matter.
Several years ago I had a Wassily Kandinsky calendar hanging on the wall next to my desk, where I scribbled notes about dental appointments, my dog's medication dosages, and much, much more. The color combinations sparked inspiration, so at the end of the year I tucked it away. In recent weeks I brought it out, and furthered my project-burnout procrastination by reading up on the Bauhaus art movement.
Over 20 years ago - on a now defunct website - I wrote a Color Theory Tutorial, based on art theorist's Johannes Itten's color wheel and contrasts. Itten taught at the Bauhaus art school in the 1920s, where he developed his color theory course, and where Kandinsky was also a member of the faculty.
As a result of this deep dive down the Bauhaus rabbit hole, I designed several plaid patterns using the Kandinsky calendar for inspiration. Eventually, the patterns will be added to the Colorful Plaids collection.
I then turned to the Pantone NYFW (New York Fashion Week) Color Trends for 2025,
... and started playing with Itten's color theory schemes and the Spring-Summer 2025 Color Trends.
(Left to Right:) Analgous, Complementary, Split Complementary color schemes
... and then, just for fun, went back to the cover image of the Kandinsky calendar, and several other colorfully inspirational pieces, and created palettes using a mixture of the seasonal Pantone Color trends for 2025. Restricting myself to these colors while ignoring the hundreds of other Pantone colors that would match better presented a challenge, and was quite a stretch in some cases.
And now it's time to get back to work.
March 15, 2025
