Project Palettes: Part One

The Project Palette series is an exploration of colors and patterns for use in future visual designs, inspired by nature, intelligent living systems, patterns, and colors. I believe evolution is the best teacher. That is why I draw most of my inspiration from nature.

This project was done in a state of flow. To me, a flow state is a state of creativity and fearlessness where you do not worry about the outcome but enjoy the process. I will try to take you through the process of designing my favorite palettes. Since my IT studies are mainly about learning new, complicated information, I needed something to balance that out, as I am naturally driven by creation. Maybe all that abstract information was the natural equalizer for this project.

There are many ways to create palettes – many websites will let you choose or create template palettes. But I believe that once you really try to discover what you like, you will become more content with the results. This way of working is not linear, and not necessarily fast. But maybe this way will teach you more about your personal design preferences.

Every day we are met with different designs, styles, and trends. But what do you really prefer?

How do you know what colors to naturally combine – how do you know what colors to use in what design?

A lot of my work with colors is intuitive. When I see colors and designs I like, I feel in harmony. When you look at nature, nothing looks out of place. The environment always blends naturally. Seasons change, time changes, and weather changes. All these changes bring new emergent design and color patterns.

Below, I have developed six different palettes by collecting color samples from various images of nature, executed in Adobe Fresco. Adobe Fresco has a feature where you can extract color palettes from imported images. It will only give you the color palettes and not the specific HEX codes.

Palette Opal Summer Dream

• Keywords: Tranquility, warmth, dreams, summer, holiday.
• Inspired by: Large patterns, the sky and the sea. Emerging patterns of light and its effect on surroundings. Capturing dawn – changing time and upcoming storms – weather systems.
• Main colors: Blue opal, pink, turquoise, beige, purple.
• Source of inspiration:

Palette Electric Indian Blue

• Keywords: Happy, joyful, tradition, cycles, harmony, persistence, patterns. 
• Inspired by: Indigenous culture, complex living systems underwater – corals. Rainbows and multicolor – the party of nature.
• Main colors: Cobalt blue, purple, green, pink, peach.
• Source of inspiration:

Palette Neon Black Cosmos

• Keywords: Creativity, introversion, bold, revolutionary, fearless, unique, contrasts.
• Inspired by: Creative forces in nature – from the large cosmos to the small flower. Contrasts are big, patterns emerging. 
• Main colors: Black, green, yellow, cobalt, gray.
• Source of inspiration:

Palette White Summer Lustre

• Keywords: Light, calm, lustre, shimmer, summer.
• Inspired by: Patterns and fractals in seashells, flowers, mother of pearl. Midsummer evening.
• Main colors: Beige, brown, white, gray, yellow.
• Source of inspiration:

Palette Warm Summer Autumn

• Keywords: Patterns, complementary, warm, autumn.
• Inspired by: Butterflies, golden reflections on water, magic.
• Main colors: Purple, peach, beige, brown, yellow.
• Source of inspiration:

Palette Earth Burnt Autumn

• Keywords: Harmony, persistence, cycles, autumn, earthy, warm.
• Inspired by: Autumn, darkness, earth, rain, animal print, forest ecosystems – roots as natural networks.
• Main colors: Brown, orange, red, green, yellow.
• Source of inspiration:

As I made these palettes, I made a discovery; images from nature had rich palettes, often with combinations you would not imagine. But one image stood out. I later learnt it was digitally created. This shows us how a machine can develop designs, but in this case, not with the same richness, complexity and randomness as nature.

In Part Two of this series, 6 palettes will be the source of future visual design concepts. Next palettes will include HEX codes. Part two builds on Part One.

Resources for selecting color palettes:

• Canva. Color palettes: https://www.canva.com/colors/color-palettes/
• Canva. The easiest place to get colors from your photos: https://www.canva.com/colors/color-palette-generator/
• Coolors. The super fast color palettes generator! https://coolors.co/