You know traditional letter banners that often appear at birthday parties and other standard occasions? The static wording means the sad banner must be tucked away until an event it fits comes along. But wait, Make Your Own Banner from The Pippa & Ike Show comes with 83 letters so you can put up a banner for any reason under the sun and even personalize it with a name. I love how this flexible banner can make any regular day a reason to celebrate. Why shouldn’t you festoon the small victories of life? Love the colour palette of black, fuchsia, light blue, lemon yellow, green and light pink too. Yep, this banner is an instant party in a box. Just add cake and sparkling beverages…

Happy New Year to all my colour-loving friends! My apologies for the unexpected spotty posting over December. Time to get back in the colourful swing of things. While I am a bit sad the holidays are wrapped up, I am thrilled to be in 2012 – a fresh year sure to be full of evolution, inspiration gathering and lot’s of colour. January is the inevitable month of calendar selling and while there are lots of stylish and covetable versions out there, I love the 2012 Accordion Calendar by the very talented Erin Jang of Indigo Bunting. Always a sucker for an accordion fold, I also love the cozy colour palette and simple mix of hand-lettering and clean typography. Throw in some lovely packaging and I am smitten. There are lot’s of ornate and highly-patterned calendars filling shop shelves but this one reminds me of what I want 2012 to be – full of good design and limitless possibilities that can’t be contained by a standard datebook box. (you can buy Erin’s calendar here)

I admit it, I am slightly Christmas bonkers. It’s hard not to be inspired and full of joy in a season bursting with colour. One of my very favourite parts of the holidays is advent calendars. They are just so full of design possibilities from the traditional windowed illustration calendars to the most contemporary parcel-a-day designs. Advent calendars make the lead-up to Christmas special and full of anticipation while also creating some fantastic design avenues to explore. I could post a hundred photos but these are a few that have caught my eye over the last few weeks. A paper forest, a watercolour spectrum, an office window showcase – advent calendars are beautiful in their traditional meaning and ability to make the holidays even more magical.

As we open the final advent calendar window/parcel, I want to wish you (each and every person who kindly reads plenty of colour!) a very happy holiday season and all the very best in 2012. I can’t believe that I started this blog exactly 11 months ago today. I am beyond grateful for the tremendous support I have received from all over the world. I started this blog because I saw a void in colour-focused design blogs and was hoping to just toss some hue-filled inspiration onto the Internet and maybe get a handful of visitors. I had no idea I would meet so many colour-loving, creative and supportive people. All of your emails, tweets and support in general has been amazing. Creating/running this blog has been a dream come true and I am so thankful for all of you who pop by for a bit of colour inspiration. Thank you. There are some changes on the horizon so expect bigger, better and more colourful things in 2012! – Chloé

(images via snug., fry dog design, inspiration overdose, snug., brigg, style cookie, anthology, griottes, a simple nest, happy mundane, house to home, the marion house book, creative review, cirkus, sheenalu, a few things from my life, country living, brigitte, ohdeedoh, french by design and the eclectic life)

It’s that time of year when new calendars and agendas fill shops and blogs. Sure, they are helpful tools of organization but I like calendars mostly for their design possibilities. The Cut Out Number Calendars at Present & Correct are so simple but oh so elegant with their thick paper board, cut-out design and contrasting primary or netural hues. While I would gladly hang these handsome devils above my desk, I almost like them more in a stack. There is just something about that jumble of overlapping numbers that makes me happy…

Helmo is a great design studio from France and I recently came across some work they did in 2009 for the Sonorama Music Festival in Besancon, France. Th CMYK typography is fantastic and the black and white illustrations are playful yet modern. What a mix! I love the program and its rainbow of one-colour photographs. The wayfinding is my favourite though as it brings so much life to the streets and grey weather. If I had been at the festival, I probably would have walked away with all of the merchandise (and an illegally procured bus shelter or wayfinding poster!)

I am completely and utterly smitten by the packaging for these Holiday Barrettes by Kate Spade. The vibrant orange card, the mix of typography, the integration of the barrettes into the whimsical sentence – I love it all. Simple and pitch perfect design. I’m pretty sure every holiday outfit would be enhanced by a hairdo featuring words like “pop fizz clink”!

(images via kate spade where the barrettes can be purchased)

Pattern, colour, type, slipcase, booklets, print. All good words alone but even better when they come together. Case in point? This limited edition box-set by Fontsmith for the 10th anniversary of their typeface library launch. Designed by Thompson Brand Partners, each of the ten booklets is written by a typeface designer and explores the creative process behind type design. Such a beautiful piece of print with fantastic colours and patterns. The photo of the booklet spines in a stack or spilling out of the bespoke slipcase just makes me plain happy…

(spotted on collate)

I love this typography alphabet by Yann Le Bec called “Type/Face”. Can you spot the letter in each face? The monocle “q” and moustache “w” are among my favourites…

When it comes down to it, make up is just pot and tube colour swatches. Perhaps that is the main reason that the displays, design and styling of cosmetics is always inspiring to me. I just love the whimsy and handmade-feeling design of Topshop’s make up line created by designer Sarah Thorne. Their main line is a chic mix of matte greys, uncoated paper, black patterns and hand drawn illustrations. In addition, each fashion season sees the launch of trend led make up range with inspirations such as ‘sand storm’, ‘festival’, ‘heavy duty’ and ‘smoke and mirrors’. I love how detailed and just plain artistic the packaging is. How stunning is the sandstorm mountain range packaging with dashes of colour and pencil lines of gold? The illustrations look like there were drawn with make up and the pieces feel like art. From metallic foils to scalloped box edges to the hand drawn type that unites all the products in every range, Topshop makeup are worth buying simply as examples of beautifully crafted design.

(images via sarah thorne, unity and form and the dieline)

These colourful ads by Ogilvy & Mather for 103.5 KISS FM in Chicago caught my eye for the bold and colourful typography as well as the clever copy. It’s true, the lyrics of current dance music is pretty bizarre when you take out the beat! I don’t think that last song by Usher is going to win any songwriting awards anytime soon…

(images via i believe in advertising)

I always love the creative (and often handmade) ways T Magazine, The New York Times Style Magazine, interprets their classic logo for each cover design. I definitely need to do a ‘colour hero’ feature on the whole inspiring series soon. In the meantime, the new Fall 2011 Travel issue has a fantastic cover featuring plants that shift in colour from a season of bright green and chartreuse to a season of bronze, orange and brown. Created by landscape designer Judy Kameon and photographer Erik Otsea, it is a gorgeous texture-filled piece of design showcasing nature in all its colourful glory. I can’t really tell you how often my dreams involve creating a T magazine cover…

(images via cover junkie)

Man Blowing a Bubble, a short film by Mitch Ansara has officially made my day. Perhaps because of my inappropriate use of emoticons in business correspondence or my love for Mary Tyler Moore’s stylish typewriting, this film set on paper just makes me happy.

(image via flickr; visit mitch’s blog here)