Sometimes, it seems the many options that brands have for displaying colourways are sort of neglected. That’s why I’m always thrilled when colours are not only displayed but showcased in design-focused and 3D ways. J.Crew is tops in that department. I love how they cut squares from actual fabrics, pop in real pins and snap a photo (allowing one to see texture and hue). I made the above mashup of their Spring 2013 and Holiday 2012 wedding hues. So many fabulous palettes for fashion, home and design (and some great colour names too)…

(images via j.crew)   

I love this floral installation designed by Paul Hecker and executed by Fleur’s Florist  for The Cool House pop-up boutique in Melbourne. Seriously, how fabulous is that gradient? What a modern showcase of all the dazzling colours nature creates through flowers…

(photograph via the cool hunter)  

In his installation Black Cloud, Mexican artist Carlos Amorales created a world that perfectly fuses downright gorgeous with rather frightening. Carlos crafted 30,000 moths of 36 different variations out of black paper and, with the aid of a team, hand glued them to every surface possible of a gallery space. The images above are of the piece installed at Yvon Lambert in 2007 but it was also re-imagined on the walls of a converted old church in Spain called Espacio AV in 2009. I would love to see this fascinating installation in real life so I can only hope it appears again one day. Meticulous handcrafted detail swarms white walls in strikingly beautiful fashion…

(photographs via yvon lambert; information via philadelphia museum of art)  

I seem to be smitten with modern hologram effects lately and I am downright mesmerized by the Stella McCartney Olegram Hologram Clutch. Part of the designer’s Resort 2013 Collection, it is a gorgeous kaleidoscope of constantly changing colour. Click here to watch it turn in dreamy fashion…

(video and screenshots created via saks fifth avenue; photograph via new york magazine)  

I love the aerial photography of Katrin Korfmann and the striking way she highlights the beauty and chaos of people and places. What gorgeous colour madness she captures at Holi in India as thousands of people throw vibrant powder. Katrin layers several recordings of a place into one image so both time progression and the energy of a location can be felt. From example, in the group above, she photographs a graduation at Cambridge University over 2 days, Madison Avenue in New York over 64 minutes, a Hong Kong highway over 40 minutes and people waiting for Julia Roberts on a Berlin red carpet over 30 minutes. Such a fascinating study of time, people, colour and composition. I particularly love Katrin’s image of a busy market in Vrindavan, India. Oh how I’d love to have a print on my wall. It showcases that hot pink really is the navy blue of India…

(check out katrin’s portfolio where you can zoom into each image and see every little detail. captivating!)

(photographs via katrin korfmann; spotted on design boom )

I’ve posted about the fascinating embroidery design of Evelin Kasikov before (whoa CMYK colour chart) and I love her latest work “Analogue/Digital”. In it, four paper objects represent print and screen formats where “pixels and dots, single elements of digital and printed image, become physical using hand embroidery”. RGB pixels stitched on a tablet screen, CMYK typography highlighting the print process, stitched TV signal bars enveloping a book and a 7 colour GIF bursting across a hardcover – it is a gorgeous exploration of the analogue and digital themes that dominate our lives. Oh how I would love one of these striking books on my shelf. Have you ever seen a pixel look more beautiful?

(photographs via evelin kasikov)  

Partners for Mental Health installation, by Blok Design (Toronto, 2012)

Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery installation, by Rethink (Vancouver, 2005)

I love public art installations, especially when they are thought-provoking, colourful and initiate public interaction. A great example? The button wall at top created by Blok Design for the Partners for Mental Health campaign “Not Myself Today”. The identity, which uses different emotions and their corresponding colours, was turned into a wall of “mood pins” in a heavily travelled section of Toronto. It reminded me of a similar installation I saw in Vancouver a few years ago. Created for the Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery, Rethink Communications printed 50,000 buttons with a single word representing one of a hundred possible responses to contemporary art. Both walls use colour and pattern in different yet equally compelling ways. They also serve as striking interactive public art that draws attention to important topics and sparks dialogue. Oh and they add rather fabulous colour to streetscapes and collars…

(photographs via rethink and blok design)  

Yep, my colourful powder and pigment obsession seems unstoppable. Photographer Marcel Christ is a still-life mastermind and I love how his “Big Bang” and “Powder” projects showcase vibrant pigments full of explosive life (but in very different ways). One set are bold, contained fireworks while the other series feel like diffused, romantic gradients of powder…

(photographs via marcel christ; spotted on abc news) 

Toque is a distinctly Canadian word and describes what are otherwise known as beanies, knitted caps or stocking hats. Hmm… But toque is just way more fun to say! Whatever the name, it is hard to resist these superbly knit, patterned hats from ALL Knitwear by Annie Larson. Modern 80′s winter fashion (with some rather awesome pom-poms)…

(photographs via ALL knitwear by annie larson)   

When I spied this project on The Artful Desperado yesterday, my head exploded with colour happiness and I had to share. Alex Brewer, otherwise known as HENSE, is an artist from Atlanta with a colourful, abstract, graffiti-inspired contemporary style. In short: wow-inducing. He was recently hired to create a massive mural on a historic but derelict church in a waterfront neighbourhood of Washington, D.C. Fittingly, the installation is directly across the street from a planned 20,000 sq.ft. museum (making the up and coming area officially smashing). I am often in favour of preserving great old architecture and returning buildings to their former glory. This project gave me pause. It would have been easy for abstract/graffiti style to clash horribly with this vintage church and make it look a blight of soulless, messy tags. But in the hands of HENSE, it remains heavenly. Vibrancy, detail, gestural abstraction – the mural retains the integrity of the historical structure yet creates a completely modern, artful wash of colour. And all using just latex paint and talent. History is given a new, colourful layer and in effect, brings glory back to what was long forgotten…

(p.s. anyone know what this building is set to become? I’ve been trying to figure it out!)

(photographs via HENSE, spotted on the artful desperado)

Birds are sort of like flying colour swatches, contrasting beautifully against blue skies, rich vegetation and pure snow. Up close, they are extraordinary layers of textured hue and pattern. Delving into the popular British hobby of bird keeping, photographer Luke Stephenson artfully showcases exotic winged creatures in his series “The Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds”. I love the visible detail, modern style and colour palettes created against perfectly selected backdrops. The birds are really posing, don’t you think?

(photographs via luke stephenson; book available for pre-order here)

I am obsessed with edge painting (when color is applied to the edges of cards, invitations, books and so forth). It adds such a pop of colour/shine to design. I don’t think I’ve seen a hologram-like effect though until this morning. Whoa. Created by designer Denis Mallet for Parisian art merchant Julien Hauchecorne, the business cards have a “diffraction effect foil on a pristine white and ebony black duplexed substrate with a diffraction foil fore-edge printing process on the outside edges”. Mind is blown. Striking and downright magical…

(photographs via denis mallet on behance) 

A few months ago, I posted a striking carpet design made out of clothespins created by Dutch art collective We Make Carpets. On a visit to the collective’s website yesterday, their three newest carpet pieces more than grabbed my attention. Created out of cocktail picks (love the side view), chocolate bars and disposable cups/utensils, they are truly beautiful modern tapestries. Oh and proof positive that with incredible attention to form and colour, one can craft a complex and richly textured pattern out of any material…

(photographs via we make carpets)

Gorgeous lettering by illustrator Lord Bunn for the rear of The Great Gatsby pub in Sheffield, England. I love it when a typical graffiti location features beautifully modern typography. Streetscape meets art gallery…

(photograph via lord bunn; spotted on typeverything)   

A fluttering swirl of origami butterflies, I love this fusion of design installation and styling by Elixr and Dream Interiors. Created for annual design event Saturday in Design, the butterflies make a striking piece of art but also highlight the clean lines of Dream Interiors’ white furniture collection and Kiki K’s storage boxes. Neutral yet lushly vibrant, it’s a match made in styling heaven…

(photographs by adrian koh, via elixr and ad week)

I love music videos. Yes, the genre is littered with some rather disturbing commercialization, repetitive imagery and soulless preening BUT I still believe there is great potential for four minutes of striking visuals and music. Done right, they can become pieces of art. Case in point: I love the new video for “Try” by Pink (a legitimate talent powerhouse). Directed by Canadian Floria Sigismondi, it’s a fusion of beautifully choreographed dance and vibrant powder. I particularly like the end section as a dusty room and carpet fill with colour and desert light bounces off pigment covered skin. One powerful use of colour…

(video directed by floria sigismondi, choreographed by the golden boyz; screen caps made from video)