Turquoise:: The Pantone Color for 2010

I am happy to announce (well re-announce) that Pantone has decided that Turquoise will be the "it" color in 2010. So watch out, it looks like Turquoise will be gracing the covers of our magazines and stitching of our garments. Not a bad thing.

Turquoise Transports Us to an Exciting, Tropical Paradise While Offering a Sense of Protection and Healing in Stressful Times

CARLSTADT, N.J., Dec. 8, 2009 –Pantone LLC, an X-Rite company (NASDAQ: XRIT), and the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, today announced PANTONE® 15-5519 Turquoise, an inviting, luminous hue, as the color of the year for 2010. Combining the serene qualities of blue and the invigorating aspects of green, Turquoise evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a languorous, effective escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of wellbeing.

“In many cultures, Turquoise occupies a very special position in the world of color,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “It is believed to be a protective talisman, a color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky. Through years of color word-association studies, we also find that Turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them to a tropical paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.”

Whether envisioned as a tranquil ocean surrounding a tropical island or a protective stone warding off evil spirits, Turquoise is a color that most people respond to positively. It is universally flattering, has appeal for men and women, and translates easily to fashion and interiors. With both warm and cool undertones, Turquoise pairs nicely with any other color in the spectrum. Turquoise adds a splash of excitement to neutrals and browns, complements reds and pinks, creates a classic maritime look with deep blues, livens up all other greens, and is especially trend-setting with yellow-greens.

In fashion, Turquoise makes a statement that can look elegant and dressy in fine silk and gemstones, or casual and fun in cotton and athletic apparel. Because of its versatility, Turquoise is a great accent color in jewelry, purses, shoes, hair accessories and even nail polish for women, and ties, shirts and sportswear for men.

For brides wanting a flattering choice for attendant apparel and accessories on their big day, Turquoise is now one of the nearly 200 PANTONE WEDDING Colors available from Dessy, a leading manufacturer of bridesmaid, social occasion and flower girl dresses, as well as destination wedding gowns under the labels Dessy Collection, After Six, Alfred Sung, Lela Rose Bridesmaid and Sandals Destination Wedding Dresses. PANTONE WEDDING exclusively from Dessy provides a collection of color tools to make it easy for brides to achieve perfectly color-coordinated weddings – from inspiration to “I do.”

Additionally, Turquoise is one of 3,000 colors available in Pantone’s line of superior-quality, eco-friendly paint. PANTONE Paints combine the accuracy of PANTONE Colors with the beauty of high-performance Dutch paints. Perfect for a powder room or bedroom, Turquoise is an evocative, spa-like hue that adds an undertone of warmth and excitement to any cool space. In the kitchen, Turquoise adds a unique flare to tabletop and appliances.

When Able is unable:

Our friend and fellow studio artist, Able Parris, who you should know since he's the only other Mama Said blog contributor, is down for the count with his recent appendectomy. Apparently he and his appendix have decided to part ways, which I hear is a painful situation. Also Able makes monthly wallpaper/desktops that we all enjoy using. However his appendectomy took precident over the December wallpaper so I decided to step up.
TA DA!
To see the lovely things Able usually creates check out his blog: ableparris.com/

The stockings were hung by the handmade, foam core fire place with care.

It all started with the lights.
Thurston and I got these lovely white lights for our winter wedding a few years ago. I loaned them to Lee and Stacy for their rehearsal dinner last spring and was too lazy to ever take them home. So they've just been wrestling with my feet under my desk for the past six months or so.
I tried really hard to wait until December to put them up, but I just couldn't make it. How can you resist a canopy of twinkle lights? Thanks to Matt, well, really Matt's height, we had all the lights up in the blink of an eye!
Then came the small tinsel Christmas tree, which has been under my desk since last Christmas. Emily and I used load of old peeps as ornaments. Along with the random ornaments Matt found in his desk it became a pretty full looking tree.
Then we found the little stockings that Wade gave us last year and thought we needed to hang them from something. That's where the mantel came in. And since you can't have a mantel without a fire place and a fire we had a more involved project on our hands. Matt spear headed the project with help from the rest of us and with a few scrap pieces of foam core and two light-work afternoons later, we had ourselves a cozy fire and fire place.
Oh. And the Santa's mail box was discovered in one of the closets in the studio and I believe that was made by an ex studio member, Zach. So thanks Zach! We're putting it to good use.
We spend more conscience hours at work than anywhere else so may as well make it merry!
We have plans for a foam core wreath and a family portrait too. Maybe even a deer.

Big Shots

Check out these McKinneites at the reception for Big Shots: Andy Warhol Polaroids at The Nasher Museum of Art. Enjoy and prolong our 15 minutes of Polaroid fame. See other shots on the Nasher’s flickr.
Sponsored by McKinney!
November 12, 2009
Durham, North Carolina

Karla Mickens & her sister
Studio Artist

John Hagerty
Art Director

Ellen Steinberg
Group Creative Director

Bliss Alexander-Smith
Studio Artist

Lizzie Ruiz
Project Coordinator

Kelly Quinn
Account Supervisor

Lindsay Parina
Project Leader

Melati Crook & Lindsley Baker-Baum
Project Leaders


Helen Hsu
Project Leader

Jenny Nicholson
Copywriter

Jonathan Cude
Chief Creative Officer

Brad Brinegar
Chairman & CEO

Janet Northen
Dir, Agency Communications

Philip Marchington
Group Creative Director

November Wallpaper

I'd like to bring to your attention a little project I've had going on since April 2008. Each month, I design a desktop wallpaper available for download on my personal website. Below is this month's. (There's also an iPhone version.)

Studio THRILL McKinney (from the front)

Studio THRILLS McKinney

Basically the McKinney studio is awesome. For our Halloween costume contest this year, we did a group costume of zombies with a surprise guest, Micheal Jackson (Cha) and preformed the thriller dance. I'm sure there are other, better videos that were taken, but here's what it looked like from the back. It was filmed with a zumi digital which is meant to mimic a super 8. Which means really grainy in low light and no sound. For that super old school feel. I synced music to it as best i could, but the actual audio, complete with cheering co-workers, made it all the more amazing. Thanks to Rachel for filming this for me! And thanks to Julia, Cha, Emily, Karla, & Lizzie for thrilling it up real nice. And a big bummer to Gail who rolled her ankle days before and couldn't par take. We'll do it again for the Christmas party Gail!

Advertising Adds Value to a Product by Changing Our Perception?

That's what Rory Sutherland asserts in this TED video:

Stealth Project, ISEA 2009

I think McKinney needs one of these:

Is Internet Image Montage Fake?

Watch the following video which claims to "present a system that composes a realistic picture from a simple
freehand sketch annotated with text labels," and tell me if you think it's real or not.

Incredible Interactive Keyboard Staircase

I'm not sure how people would have known this installation was from Volkswagen, but the idea is wonderful. I would love to have a staircase like this. Maybe here at McKinney?

Able and I are on the same page.

And that page has been carved down to reveal beautiful artwork. Check out these dollar bill cut paper works from tattoo artist Scott Campbell.

Book Dissections

It's Friday, which means you have all weekend to do something creative on your own schedule. If you're lost for ideas, maybe these book dissections will inspire you to get away from the computer.






(via designboom)

Helvetimail

Unhappy with the cluttered look of Gmail and their provided themes? Now you can give your inbox a cleanup with Helvetimail.

Test your color vision

This test is pretty neat.

I'm curious to see how everyone does.

Surface View

Speaking of adorning the walls, I would love the opportunity to have any of the designs at Surface View applied to a wall at my home. Below are a few that caught my eye, but be sure to browse their beautiful site.

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

thanks to one of our lovely art directors, Rocky, for sharing!

The Readability Bookmarklet

Reading on screens isn't much fun, but it just got a whole lot easier. Introducing, Readability, an Arc90 Laboratory experiment.

It's a customizable bookmarklet you can drag to the top of your browser. Any time you are reading an article online that you'd like to clean up, just click on the bookmarklet and it will temporarily reformat the text to your preferred settings.

Making of Blueprint 3 ALbum Cover

I'm looking forward to the day studio gets a request to do something like this.

Adorn Our Walls

I like the work of Brooklyn-based studio, Adorn. I'd like to see the studio do something similar to our walls as their installation for Nike pictured below. Check out more of their work on their site.

Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?

Dan Ariely will be coming into the agency in a couple of weeks to talk about behavioral economics. Dan is the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, a visiting professor at MIT’s Media Laboratory, and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.

After seeing the video below, I am really looking forward to hearing him speak. I'll also be trying to read as much of his book, Predictably Irrational, as possible before his visit.

How We Read

Cyrus Highsmith of Font Bureau fame has written (and illustrated!) a brief explanation of how we read.

The typographer’s job is to work within the limits of the reader’s preferences and eyesight so the words go smoothly into the brain. With experience, the typographer is able to judge what settings will be the most comfortable for the reader.

Read the entire post here.

TYPOGRAPHY 101

TYPOGRAPHY 101

To quote Grealey:

Costume ideas are few and font between.

b3ta.com

desktop download

Usually when I'm in meetings I doodle. Lots of lines and swirls. I did the same thing in school. Contrary to how it may seem it helps me concentrate. So recently, while waiting for an email reply or something where I'm still at my desk, this common little habit spilled over into a computer exercise. The result? A little gift for you my friend. Hopefully this will be a regular thing.


blue and red lines:
320 x 480 (iphone)
1024 x 768
1280 x 800
1280 x 1024
1440 x 900
1600 x 1024
1680 x 1050
1920 x 1200

iQ font

This is just great. Great great great. I would love to be involved in a project like this some day. Maybe this weekend. I think I'm free. Kate get your camera and we'll all think up an appropriate ukulele cover to go with it.

iQ font - When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo.

This was created by Pierre Smeets and Damien Aresta from pleaseletmedesign.com. Also check out their flickr and download the free iQ font from Toyota!

Typography 101

My plan was to get in early and do a post about Optical vs. Metrics kerning in InDesign. http://forums.adobe.com/thread/323629

this is hilarious.

I love love love fashion blogs. Street fashion blogs though. Which may seem odd seeing as how right now I'm wearing ugly, very comfortable flip flops, jeans, a tshirt, a slightly baggy cardigan and twisted up hair. Although to my defense I had a cute hat on this morning which I thought was a nice accessory to my mild mannered outfit, but it didn't last.
I am a regular contributor to a flickr pool called wardrobe remix. It's quite fun and sometimes, sometimes, gives me the nudge I need to wear shoes other than my flip flops. I also frequent (as a viewer not contributor) hel-looks (my favorite), the sartorialis, and face hunter.
I recently came across this poster on refinery29, which I'm adding to my fashion blog watch. It is so completely hilarious! I love it. Even in the sort of fashion sub-culture I consider myself an appreciator of there's a lovely hierarchy that can be made fun of.

somewhere over the pantones

While *waiting on some feedback today I took a gaze out of the window behind me and I do nearly every day to rest my eyes and stretch my legs and decided that it was very gray in Durham today. No. Not gray, like blueish gray. But a very pale blueish gray. Definitely a cool gray. And that led to me wonder what exact color the sky was. So I tracked down a(n old) pantone® fan book and tried to figure it out. I think it was in between Pantone 7541 C and Pantone Cool Gray 1PC. I couldn't be sure because every time I looked from the sky to the book my eyes adjusted for the brightness as did the camera phone exposure. So you'll just have to take my word on that one.

So this led me to wonder how a few other things translated in Pantone.

The up-to-date, solid chips coated, Pantone Book.
Again, let me mention that the fan book I was using was an older one and was chosen for it's ability to be held with one hand.
I believe its closest match was Pantone 7417 C.


Next, my arm.
Let it be known that I am a very pale person but did take a trip to the beach last Saturday which I think skewed these results. Pantone 473 C


My dress.
Which turns out looks duller on paper than on fabric. I suppose it has been washed a few times
Pantone 3395 PC


The lovely brick wall behind me.
This was hard because I had to choose one brick to match. But this is the brick I always glance to so it was the winner.
Pantone 1645 PC


My after lunch grapes
These are huge grapes by the way. Which I think made it a tad easier to match their color.
Pantone 374 PC


And finally, Chelsie's bag which I covet.
It's such a great color. Especially for a bag. It must be like carrying around a puddle of water. I have bag envy pretty frequent, but can't seem to ditch my own fall to pieces, full of buttons, ripped seams satchel I've had for years.
Pantone 307 PC

* disclaimer that i was not just tooling around at work