Designing colour palettes
I like to create colour palettes inspired by real things in the world.
A colour chart or colour wheel is a theoretical set of colour relationships, useful only for the purposes of teaching about and organising colour. A colour wheel is not in itself a design tool.
The ‘colour world’ is much more complex and beautiful.
In 2012, I created a colour palette based on spices and dried goods, for a public project in Parramatta.
When you work from ‘real things in the world’, you start to see patterns and connections unfolding before your eyes. The moment I started studying the spice colours, I realised that they were strikingly similar to the heritage colour palette, and would therefore be contextually appropriate for use in Parramatta.
When I am beginning any project, a large part of the work is collecting colours; from the site, from the landscape, from the objects in a home, researching the history of a place and looking for colour cues that can be used to create a story of place.
In some projects colour schemes are generated by art collections. In others it’s the surrounding landscape, or a particular species of plant (e.g, Banksia and sandstone cliffs at North Bondi and Mark’s Park Amenities, respectively.)
In a project currently under construction, Bankstown Animal Rehoming Centre (BARC) I’ve used six local birds to generate the colour scheme for the entire complex, including interior and exterior finishes, the wayfinding signage and an integrated public art work.
I believe that humans are healthier and happier when we are close to nature, if we must be in buildings then our buildings must keep us connected; they need to keep the natural world in our hearts and minds.
So what happened to the spice colours?
They formed the palette of a laneway ‘activation’ project in Parramatta, NSW. The laneways project was temporary, to help maintain occupancy in a row of shops whose demolition was postponed due to the GFC. ‘Temporary’ ended up being 8 years. In the lifespan of a building or a coat of paint, 8 years is indeed temporary.
Darcy St was completed 10 years ago. I’m still grateful for the amazing opportunity to work at a large scale when I was just starting Lymesmith. The rich, warm colours generated a lot of community love for a run down strip of shops in the city centre. Colour makes connections.
