I ’m serious .
This whole color thing has be believe , so peradventure I ’ll drop a line the longest post I ever have , to discourse some of my ever - changing hypothesis about color , the garden , and design .
This is not just a headline cleverly crafted to increase my SEO numbers . This information that will aid you overcome any colour combo issue you have in the garden , and if you are wonder how this ridiculously foresighted post could ever relate to you , I could sum up the facts – Olympic graphics , pixels biological;y found works cells are not that dissimilar from each other , and , I will prove to you why a garden based around purple and ruby-red realise far more sense than one based about pinkish and puritanic . Believe me , this will change your life – or at the very least , how you will be choosing your color palette next year . And that ‘ Olympian woman ’s basketball things ? ’ Read on , you will never think about color in the same way .
Not to geek out on you too much , but today ’s digital designer make out more about garden color theory than most real gardener do , with the exclusion of the Brit ’s . Then again , British gardeners figured out garden coloration theory a long fourth dimension ago , I think because of their sad environmental inflammation ( I ’m serious ) . They have more optimum lighting day in the UK because of those omnipresent cloud-covered sky ( at least we Americans wish to opine that it ’s always overcast in London ) . It ’s like they are gardening in a practical igniter boxwood , and as any garden lensman recognise , shoot images on an overcast day , or at crepuscle or break of the day – never full sunshine . My point here is – garden today should be plan for broadcast more than for printed photo , and here ’s why .
All this thanks to throw leadFUTUREBRAND , and Executive Creative Director Shane Greeves and Creaetive Director Matt Buckhurst ) . They develop a very comprehensive visual language from the original study designed by Wolff Olins to dress up the locale graphics at the Games . These are the colorful banners the entire global consultation is view – on their HD television screen . They HAVE to look good . fundamentally , they are making the Games look pretty on TV . And they do . But it ’s as much scientific discipline as it is design , and all good art is , or should be . Just wait at the trading floor of the Hockey Stadium in the aery photographer Jason Hawkes ikon – vivid .
I will say this again , for my intent friends , 1984 was the beginning of the conclusion of PMS color , since practically overnight , we all started thinking about colouring differently – that is , everyone except gardener and floral designers .
Zoom to today – Did any of you notice how amazing those colors on the jelly bean inDillon ’s Candy BaronProject Runway ’s time of year 10looked the other night ? I did . In just the violet shade alone , there were purples , blueish periwinkles , Battle of Magenta violets , and they all seemed to shine on our big screen boob tube . It made me require to rush out and purchase some confect and not see the end . Well , how we humans remember about color has change in the nearly 30 years since 1984 – younger people have not realized it yet , but the sweetest colors of all – the ones we as homo are pull to – appear on TV screens and computer monitors , not on the walls of our live rooms , or even on the clothes that we wear . They also appear in the garden , but I ’ll get to that .
It ’s all biology , or is it physiology ? Whatever – it ’s designed by nature – and just as bee ’s can see sure patterns in flowers that we can not see , humans are naturally attracted to certain colors because we are wire that way . Really – in much the same way that aqua blue air is considered a raging colouration because it is the same color as a red-hot gas flaming , it ’s why peacocks and Ixia solicitation to some of us . Shimmer factors in here , which is technically that Nerine - esque deflexion of sunshine somewhere within the cellular wall of a cell , making sealed flower and their colors have an awe-inspiring depth and twinkle – depend – I ’ll simplify this theory to keep this short – humans like sparkle because it means body of water . We are design to be attracted to it because , well….we are not that unlike bees .
What this mean for garden is this – the Brit ’s really did jazz something , when they started to combine red and grim in the same garden , it really does ‘ work ’ , even though it ’s taking some time for these left over color trends to see on in the rest of the world . I ’m seeing it play out like this . First , the flowered intriguer see it – it ’s easier for them , because they can operate the amount of green that industrial plant have – hell , they do n’t even require green , unless they desire it . Most florists remove all of the foliation on the stems of their plants , unless they like the colour or grain . nurseryman just ca n’t do this . We need to deal with about 90 % fleeceable in any color palette we make , unless we prefer for grim foliage ( which bechance to calculate killa with a violent and purple / juicy palette – just sayin ’ ) .
In my full time job , I deal with this all the time . Designers spec’ing PMS color on their data processor screen , never requesting sample distribution of the literal colour on the product , marketers approving or retool colors found on a poor quality CMYK(4 - color - cyan blue , magenta , icteric and bootleg ) print - out from a optical maser printer ( SO different already from the original ) , and then the designer choosing a PMS colour chip from an RGB surroundings on their screen all the while designing something on a CMYK moded written document , and the colour world is so disoriented at this point , that no one will ever see the splendid color that they wanted . And you wonder why I garden ?
I will simplify this again , look at this ikon , and see what I intend . Well , the same affair plays out in your garden at home . You choose a perennial or annual from a digital seed catalog based on a digital look-alike or one printed in a catalog on paper . You then project out your garden with aspiration of coral and birdlime green , and 6 months later , you are discourage because all you ’ve ended up with is green garden with a few spectacles of languish pink .
No one has done this better than the design squad who created EUROPE IN BLOOM in Copenagen on the facade of the European Environmental Agency , thanks to the family line atLushe , in copenhagen . Notice the last coloring motif , or red and blue / reddish blue . They play like pixels as our eye reads them , and merge into an attractive tone .
I will say that now that most of us are on laptop , planning a garden with incredible color is comfortable , as long as you utilise a few rule – and the rules have changed , so cerebrate about this .
1 . Most of your garden in brownish or green , so component in this reality and re - set your vision free-base on it .
2 . Digital photo are broadly more accurate than printed picture , when it come to colouration . So use Pinterest more effectively- build colour palettes and card on tints rather than your favourite colors .
3 . count at literal gardens more often . You would be surprised at what actually really work , and what does n’t really seem that expert in real liveliness .
4 . employ anything as inspiration – I imply , a post-horse , a fav . dish towel , and peculiarly anything that you see on television . utter of Project Runway – did any of you comment the new ID and logo for Lifetime ? That coral and fatal ? THAT ’S what I ’m talkin ’ bout ’ . A high deff garden .
5 . Always remember – Ms. Jekell has something in common with the women basketball game players , and it ai n’t what you recollect I am going to say . It ’s the naivete about gardening . Yes , Ms. Jekell never had a TV , but color for her was always evaluate in - the - garden , never from ledger or magazines . This is the gift that British gardener have give us – the gift of garden design before colour media .
The twentieth Century screwed us all up . Something to do with all of that experimental printing on paper and off - tint from the 1930 ’s through the 1970 ’s , the Polaroids , the bad Kodachrome ’s of the 80 ’s until now , when ultimately , we can wipe away that ugly test period for colour . When one had to really know a lot about cameras , and wakeful meters , when one really had to control impression on paper and ink mixing , when one project a panorama from a Better Homes and Gardens magazine in their front lawn with red geranium and greenish grass , with a picket fencing . It only occupy as 100 years to work through that period .
Today , we can look at the US women ’s basketball squad live from the 2012 London Olympics , and start project a red , magenta , reddish blue and orange garden , and know that it will blow away their neighbor with her downcast and silver ( yawn ) ‘ garden ’ . Team USA !
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