Oops, I am slightly behind in my palettes of the week! But I think this fantastic photograph taken outside the shows of SS13 Paris Fashion Week makes up for it. Captured by Kuba Dabrowski, the image is a smashing combination of sidewalk grey and vibrant blue (with a pop of red). Birds-eye fashion photography might become my new obsession…

(photograph by kuba dabrowski via women’s wear daily)

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)   

With the rise of big box stores and discount e-commerce, brick and mortar shops feel more important than ever. Their design details and community building potential are vital to the uniqueness of cities. To me, the soul of a place is found walking down its streets but what happens if every street looks exactly the same? Even if chain stores are an inevitable addition to a neighbourhood, there is no excuse for cookie cutter design. Just look at that great Starbucks above! Any shop can be engaging and full of great design. In my latest post for Rena Tom, I dissect some great brick and mortar shops that have caught my eye lately and serve as inspiration for physical storefronts, unique online spaces and temporary retail. Pop over here to have a look…

(photographs via love camden, michael penney style, blank inside, nico alary, weekday carnival, dezeen and the design files)

HOT+TEA, also known as Eric Rieger, is an American street artist who uses vibrant yarn as his medium of choice. I love so many of his installations including this marvelous piece called Lost+Found. HOT+TEA spotted a vacant Minneapolis tennis court with no net for the locals to use (a lost space). He decided to create a net using nothing but neon yarn so the court could be returned to its original purpose (found). I love how it mixes vibrant art with something that enhances a community and brings people together…

(photographs via / screencaps created from a video on unurth )  

Now this is a colour-happy police station. Designed by Klein Dytham Architecture, the ‘Koban Police Box’ is a station in the Japanese neighbourhood of Kumamoto. A perforated steel ribbon rims the top of the structure allowing for lovely shadows to dapple the sidewalk throughout the day. The inside surface is also painted a rainbow of light hues which, when viewed at street level, allows for colour to pop intriguingly from the perforations in many different ways. This design certainly projects a friendly, less intimidating image of police. I hope the handcuffs are similarly colourful…

(photographs via designboom)

I have always been Olympic Games obsessed but, after spending a few years working on design for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, I am full on bonkers about all things Olympic from sports to design to cultural events. One of my favourite facets is how the “Look of the Games” comes to life and dresses the event from tiny keychain to massive building. I particularly like when this design breaks tradition and changes the look of a sport. Case in point? London 2012′s Riverbank Arena where, for the first time ever, the Hockey competition will be played on a colour that isn’t traditional grass green. Instead, the pitch will be vibrant cobalt blue with hot pink edges and, in another Olympic first, the ball will be yellow instead of white. CMYK dreaminess, no? The palette was created in response to a request from the International Hockey Federation to help raise interest in the sport and is the final product of copious testing. Both the warm-up pitch and competition field are bold, modern and sure to catch the eye of many new hockey fans. The cobalt field will help the yellow ball be seen and overall, the vibrant colour trio will be beautifully telegenic and bright. Great abstract pattern in the spectator seating as well. I love when sports experiment with modern hues and design. Can’t wait to see this field in action as I may have just found my favourite London 2012 piece of colour…

(photographs via creative review, anglotopia, telegraph, teamgb, guardian and the big picture)

I am a big fan of Canadian landscape architect Claude Cormier and when I saw the photographs of his Les Boules Roses installation in Montreal, I almost immediately booked a ticket East. Created for the Aires Libres summer celebration which turns Sainte-Catherine Street East into an art-loving pedestrian zone, the piece features 200,000 resin balls in three sizes and five tones of pink. Using bracing wire, the rows of balls are laced through the trees in nine different suspension patterns and at varying heights. The final product is a magical canopy stretching over 1km between St. Hubert and Papineau streets. The different tones of pink and levels of suspension bring dimension-rich, joyful texture to the streetscape. You can see this gorgeous temporary rooftop from now until September 16th. The world needs more colourful street canopies methinks…

(photographs via claude cormier, archdaily and arthitectural)

Back in February, I posted about The Colour Run and was rather sad to see it wasn’t coming to my hometown of Vancouver. A powder throwing party à la Holi and overall colour-loving celebration? Yes please! I then heard about Color Me Rad, a similar event promising “5km of colour bombardment” and a “royal rumble of colour” as the grand finale (all with a portion of the proceeds going to a local charity). Thankfully, Vancouver is in the tour dates and I can’t wait to participate. Upon registration, you are given the option to buy additional non-toxic colour powder packs and I, um, may have purchased quite a few. Whether The Color Run or Color Me Rad, I hope one of these Holi-like events is heading to your hometown (fingers crossed for expansion outside North America too). If you are in Vancouver, I will see you there! What a joyful way to spend a day with fellow colour lovers…

(photographs/screen caps via color me rad)

Yellowtrace is a fantastic Australian blog with a razor sharp eye for style and design. I am thrilled to be doing a few guest posts for Dana, yellowtrace’s founder, while she is on maternity leave this month. My first is the Geode Project by artist A Common Name. Placed in building holes and random pipes, these amazingly intricate paper crystal formations bring real-life magic to everyday surroundings. Has a drainpipe ever looked better? Read my whole post here.

(photographs via a common name)

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think music videos have so much potential to be beautiful, stirring, innovative pieces of art. Lately, they feel more like repetitive product placements than statements of art which seems like a waste to me. On the flipside of that trend is the fabulous band OK Go. They make one fantastic music video after another that showcases how an awesome end result does not need a giant budget. This new video for Skyscrapers is lovely in its simplicity – 3 minutes and 45 seconds of gorgeous colur and dance. I love the travels back and forth through rainbow hues including the vibrant costumes and painted background walls. The video was directed and produced by Grammy Award-winning choreographer and director Trish Sie (she’s the dame part of the couple) and also features dancer Moti Buchboot. Proof that a great music video just needs innovation, talent and a big dash of colour…

(information via the always colourful Colossal)

As you may know, I am more than a little in love with bits of art in unexpected places. I find this piece of street art in Bergen, Norway to be simply magical. A dainty, elegant stencil on a rough, industrial surface…

(photograph by cicilie fagerlid via monique)

Click here to view the embedded video.

A colourful troupe runs around town infusing hue into interiors, wardrobes, cosmetics and mundane corners of life? Yep, I love this commercial for Target by director Filip Engstrom. Featuring the French-Canadian children’s song “Alouette“, the spot has a beautiful colour palette (love the costumes!) and is just plain fantastic. I especially love how a bounce on a couch results in bright throw cushions and the overhead visual of a grey intersection filling with colourful runners. Anyone want to form a similarly well-styled colour gang who travels by hot air ballon and frolics around adding dashes of hue to life? I’ll send out membership details soon…