www.anewdesign.com.au

The Colour White

Angela — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 21:43:32 +0000

“For those colours which you wish to be beautiful, always first prepare a pure white ground” – Leonardo Da Vinci.
White paint is white because it reflects most light rays away from it. White paint can be made of many things. From chalk or zinc, barium or rice, or from little fossilised sea creatures in limestone graves. The Dutch artist Jan Vermeer even made some his luminescent whites with a recipe that included alabaster and quartz. The greatest of the whites, and certainly the cruellest, is made of lead. European artists for hundres of years have rated lead white as one of the most important paints on their palette. This brief summary taken from Colour travels through the Paintbox. The whole chapter on white is fascinating and deadly.

In Design, White represents the KIS principal ( keep it simple). As in painting I use the white as my starting canvas. I don’t consider white an empty space but an intregal part of the design which highlights the colourful images or lines on the page. To me, white is a very important part of visual communication and keeps the design clean, crisp and pleasing.

Without the right amount of white spacing, text would be hard to read, graphics would lose their impact, and there would be no balance between all the elements on a page or site.

Florence Broadhurst

Angela — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:25:09 +0000

Watched a great movie on Florence Broadhurst on the weekend. Like or Dislike her, Florence Broadhurst are bright and vibrant handprinted wallpaper from the late 50s to the mid 70s and she was a great marketer.

Found a great video on You Tube with an interview with Gillian Armstong, Director of the movie, have put an insert in the video section.

Marimekko fabrics

Angela — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:58:47 +0000

This one of my favourite Marimekko fabrics – Unikko Fabric Red. It is a classic fabric that has become more popular than even. I would wear it but also great as wallcandy art, cloth or for curtains.

Marimekko fabrics are all screen printed, and designed by top Finland designers. The company started in 1951.
To me they are a bold innovative shapes with great use of the colour palatte.

Here are some other great colours for the bedlinen:

Colour “The Paintbox”

Angela — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:40:27 +0000

I am reading a wonderful book at the moment by Victoria Finlay “Colour, Travels through the Paintbox”.

This book was given to my by a friend last christmas with the inscription ” this book was written for you” – how true and thank you for knowing me so well, I love colour in all forms from clothes to web and graphic design to interior design.

This book has given me a wonderful insight into colour and where it has come from. Victoria’s quest is to uncover the secrets of colour which she does through the history of pigments and dyes. Starting with the ochres in Australia to the history of white as a lead. It gives me so much more respect for colour and how we came by it.

The book starts with giving us the basic understanding of how colour is formed. There are several “physical” causes of colour and the most familiar to me is the rainbow which forms in the sky when light bounces around raindrops and is refracted into separate wavelengths – this explanation was discoverd by Isaac Newton in 1666 with the use of prisms.

Colour –

Angela — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:01:15 +0000

Working with colour is still an important factor in design for a website for me. Gone are the days when you designed a great looking site with the use of HTML only and your biggest hurdle was to get the site to download quickly over a dial up connection – not photos over 10kb and the colurs had to be in the 256 zone. This is still work in progress as there is so much that goes into the design and workings of a website these days.

Virtual Professional

Angela — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:02:01 +0000

Over the past couple of years I have contracted out to several not for profit organisations as their administrator. I incorporate this into my own business so work from a home office on my own. Which leads to the next comment-

Understanding the Difference Between Working with a Virtual Assistant Professional and Working with an Employee