“Snow Harvest”
field guide
Color Month: Yellow
February is COLOR MONTH around the Pond. I mentioned that I was planning a content emphasis for each month this year to share more detailed information about various marketing or design topics both here on Plop! and on the Small Pond Facebook page and Twitter stream. I’ve been gearing up for color month, so get ready! I’m planning to share some information about color theory and color associations surrounding the basic choices in your 8-count crayon box.
Let’s start with YELLOW!
Caution lights, school buses, taxi cabs & golden arches! Yellow is all around us in our culture today. All colors deliver unspoken messages when used in design, marketing and even wall colors. Often those messages are based on what we see in nature, how a color stands up to history, popular cultural impressions and even the way our bodies are put together. All those factors impact how we respond to various colors. So, what about yellow?
Yellow is the brightest of the primary colors, and indeed all colors. From cheerful daffodil and citrus versions to more creamy hues, color variations in the yellow family create an undoubtedly sunny persona. Yellow almost instinctively says “caution” because of its association in nature with the markings of predators. And, in our culture, the familiar yellow and black road signs reinforce that idea. In fact, a yellow background paired with black offers one of the most noticeable and readable color combinations.
GENERAL IMPRESSIONS:
Yellow is equated with the brightness and heat of the sun in virtually every culture. The eye registers bright yellow before any other color. However, yellow’s reflectivity also makes it very fatiguing to the eye. Over time, a bright yellow background tires the eye and has a negative response. Physically, yellow stimulates the appetite and increases metabolism, so we see it everywhere in food service, tableware and grocery store packaging. Yellow almost universally recalls light and warmth. Because of that association with light and the sun, it also often signifies imagination and enlightenment. Bright yellow is widely seen as a very positive and intellectual color.
COLOR VARIATIONS:
Lighter, pastel yellows are considered mellow, soft and cheerful. Daffodil yellow maintains enough brightness to be cheerful, but also offers a more energetic and eye-catching tone–a youthful exuberance. Creamy yellow variations offer a more sophisticated feel and are often associated with rich, delicious foods. Think cheesecake! Lemon yellow is naturally associated with citrus, cleanliness and freshness.
NEGATIVE ASSOCIATIONS:
Cultural phrases like “yellow-bellied” and “yellow journalism” hint at the negative views of the color yellow. Historically, it has been used to describe cowardice and can sometimes reference questionable practices. In addition, yellow tones are sometimes associated with illness, and the color doesn’t generate a healthy look against many skin types.
For the most part, yellow can’t help but spread a decidedly positive feel wherever it’s found. The sunshine and warmth inherent in the color yellow offer a lighter and fresh mood. And because its variations don’t usually reflect any strong gender preferences, I think yellow offers the opportunity for a very sophisticated look. Where are you seeing yellow today?
Discrepancies
It’s February, and the month invariably seems to bring our attention to love. It’s inescapable. And while I don’t always buy into the hearts and flowers mentality this time of year, I want my heart to be committed to pursuing and grasping a life characterized by love. A life centered in real and genuine love. A life that rejects the imitations. A life that acts out all the discrepancies love reveals. A life that loves in little things and big things, regardless of distractions.
One of the realities about love I’m continuing to learn as I travel this road toward paying attention is that to love is always to risk. It’s true. Having my children has taught me that lesson more than any other experience, for sometimes even the simple act of letting them out of my sight is an assault on my heart. There is no love without risking myself — risking damage to that core of who I really am, where I live and breathe. Real love always involves opening and exposing myself. Giving myself. Acting outside of myself. And in the face of all the discrepancies inherent in pursuing a life of love, I find myself committed to that openness.
I made a decision in my life a long time ago that having an open heart was important to me. That remaining open despite circumstances was valuable. That exposing my heart to the full weight life (and love) have to offer was the only way to really infuse that life with true meaning, certainly the only way to really see and be moved by the people around me. The only way to distinguish true love from its pale comparisons. Yes, it’s a risky endeavor. Inspite of the risk and even my own disappointments, the opportunity to love is everywhere.
But, love can be a struggle. I don’t know about you, but I’ve experienced those times when the simple opportunities to love those around me were lost in a sea of roles. A sea of expectations — many of which I place on myself. In the day-to-day of life, I’m a parent, a designer, a cook, an organizer, a cleaner, the all-knowing finder of favorite toys and lost clothing, the ever-present referee for playtime games and stories, and the obligatory standard for kind and “loving” behavior. In the pursuit of love, at times I’ve been a trophy. I’ve been somewhere down someone’s list. I’ve been the caretaker, the mother, the unheard voice of reason. I’ve been the assumption, the provider and the significant “other.” It’s hard not to see myself only as a reflection of those things. And certainly of my choices to continue in whatever roles may stifle me, and even inhibit my ability to love. It’s hard to continually pull myself out of those roles and be generous or giving or creative or whatever else is required to live that open life I mentioned. It’s hard to keep my heart open when it means being able to feel the brunt of those roles and positions head-on. The discrepancies of life and love can be staggering.
Here’s the thing. Love is finding joy. Love is a place of peace and acceptance. Love is hoping and blessing. Love is giving away. And, love is hurting and being disappointed. Love is misunderstanding. Love is trying and sometimes failing. Love is discrepancy.
I want to run from the discrepancy. My soul wants to fly from it as fast as it can go and never look back. My heart wants to close itself up tight and pull the covers over its head. But, it doesn’t. It won’t. For love is far too important a vehicle for experiencing the world. And love is far too important a lifestyle to teach. Real life and real love are about those discrepancies. They are about slippage and imperfections. About disorder and unpredictability. And at the end of the day, they are about hope and faith. The assurances that a life of love is worth it — whatever it takes. Whatever letting go, whatever grasping, whatever denying or embracing, whatever ending or beginning, whatever exposure of myself. A life of love is worth it. It’s worth the full measure of all that I have.
In keeping with that realization, this month’s desktop wallpaper takes its lesson from Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The encouragement is to love both to the full “depth and breadth and height” my soul can achieve as well as back to the simple response of “everyday’s most quiet need.” Yes, that’s a life worthy of pursuing.
[Click the desktop wallpaper version above to download and enjoy with your technology and grab this iphone wallpaper version as well. Happy February!]
photo 020111 . Snow Vessel
“North Meets South”
favorite thing . Little Things
I saw this plaque featured in a post about the Patina stores on one of my favorite blogs, Creature Comforts. I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of weeks now, and it’s inspired me to begin something new for Plop!. I began Small Pond Graphics last July unexpectedly as a result of unforeseen life changes. Six months or so later, I am still fine-tuning the “story” of the Small Pond. And thinking small is a part of it. No, I don’t mean eschewing the big ideas. I just mean focusing some attention on the small details that so often translate into ripples of impact on the big picture.
Part of my goal in this blog has been to inspire MYSELF to focus on creating a well-designed company with well-designed projects, well-designed relationships and to open myself to the well-designed life all around me. So, I mostly post about things I like, things that interest me or give fuel to my creativity. To that end, the sentiment on this plaque echos my thoughts about daily habits and rituals, and about living a creative life–or about a life lived creatively.
I keep a book beside my desk that I pick up and read snippets of regularly. It’s called Living a Beautiful Life by Alexandra Stoddard, and I’ve probably read it through and through ten times. Still, it never ceases to inspire me. Mrs. Stoddard is an interior designer and how we approach our daily rituals is one of the things she considers in designing the most intimate spaces her clients inhabit. In her book, she talks about the power of elevating the “daily” to something wonderful, about creating beauty in even the most mundane of spaces and activities. She writes…
Daily rituals are personal statements; they fuel our zest for living…. Personal rituals make you a poet–and they can help you feel good about yourself and others. They reinforce the significance of the simple acts we perform repeatedly. While you are fulfilling basic needs, you can make the ordinary quite extraordinary. When you make your everyday rituals–simple things such as bathing, sleeping and eating–meaningful and attractive, they nourish other areas of your life.
Mrs. Stoddard’s thinking has encouraged me to make the ordinary special by savoring those moments, surrounding them and infusing them with what I find beautiful and meaningful–because life is a series of all those moments strung together.
LITTLE THINGS PLAQUE from Patina
My other favorite plaque… COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES 😉