Yes, shades of pink are soft and a bit feminine. Why is pink viewed as feminine? When you really sit down and ponder on that question, it is rather a good question to ask yourself, It doesn't have to be feminine, but since it is viewed that way, and society helps along this concept, here we are. Personally, I never was big on the color pink, but as I became an adult I found myself loving pink and all of it's many shades. It isn't that bad, it is a rather soothing and happy hue. So, today I bring you shades of pink. What are your thoughts on pink?

apple candles, champagne bucket, mug, plug, bouquet, stationery

With all of this warm weather I find myself thinking of the beach and the beautiful ocean. Though some oceans do not appear to be blue, I associate blue with the ocean and vice versa. Well, I felt that it was only fitting to share with you shades of blue. I chose a selection of fun and tasteful items that made me happy. Do you enjoy shades of blue?

"Stuff I find here and there, scanned and cataloged for your enjoyment and mine."

Collection from flickr user Big Red Robot.

Well, we broke another contest entry record with the RYZ shoe design contest.  1,600 designs were submitted... awesome work.  Now comes the hard part of trying to find a winner from so many great designs.  This is where you spread the word about your designs and get your friends and family to vote for your shoe.  Good luck!

Remember, winner takes home the grand prize - $750 cash and $250 store credit to the RYZ shop - plus free sponsored memberships at COLOURlovers.

Vote Now at RYZ

Details from RYZ

It was tough work, but with the help from our friends at COLOURlovers, we were able to find the Top 9 COLOURlovers pattern designs out of the over 1600 submitted. In keeping with our voting process, we are seeding the voting gallery - top 9 selected by our COLOURlovers Creative Panel are on page 1, then the top 9 selected by our internal RYZ team on page 2. All other designs are listed on following pages and have equal chance in winning.

With the onslaught of multiple designs submitted, we have created a new feature where you can remove an entry from the competition. For those who have entered more than 3 designs, we'll give you through the weekend to self-select your favorite three (you probably shouldn't remove your design if it's in the top 9) - after that we will go through and remove designs for you. Go to your Contest Portfolio and select the "X" to remove a design from the contest. It will be returned to your Personal Design Workspace.

Remember everyone has a chance at winning - post your shoe to your networks, invite your friends and vote often!

Good luck to all and thank you again to the COLOURlovers community!

This is a guest post written by Howard Sullivan who together with Tom Phillipson make up the London based design agency Your Studio. You can see the original post on their blog.

“Underneath Day’s azure eyes, Ocean’s nursling, Venice lies, A peopled labyrinth of walls, Amphitrite’s destined halls.”

As the sun rose and the art-crowds flocked, the great palazzos threw open their doors this weekend marking the opening of Venice’s 53rd Biennale, curated by Daniel Burnbaum and open

Francis Upritchard’s ‘Yellow Dancer’ from ‘Save Yourself’, installation for the NZ Pavillion, Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana, Venice Biennale, 2009

For the next four summer months. This showcase of the world’s best and most diverse art talent is the modern treasure within not only the amazing crumling palazzos but also at the ‘Arsenale’, a grand industrial L-shaped sequence of double-height brick warehouses and at ‘Giardini’- a large open park scattered with rambling pavilions and outbuildings.

We first encountered Francis Upritchard at Kate MacGarry’s Vyner Street Gallery for the show ‘Feierabend‘ with Martino Gamper and Karl Fritsch.  ‘Save Yourself‘, Upritchard’s show representing New Zealand at the Biennale at Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana is both entrancing and unmissable.

Francis Upritchard’s ‘Save Yourself’ for the NZ Pavillion, Palazzo Mangilli-Valmarana, Venice Biennale, 2009

A selection of patterns from the COLOURlovers' group Complex Pattern. Oops, I didn't read the rules of this group before selecting these and I've included some patterns other than x_1013_x.

Group devoted to Complex pattern by x_1013_x. What it means to us, showcasing and picking our favourites. For me it was like discovering a brand new island. Lovely experience. The pattern's secrets are inside, ways to use it and categories for you to post your patterns in. The complex pattern is by hard the hardest pattern to master. It has so many options to it. It's just impossible to find the perfect colour scheme. So our goal is to master it.

Here's a great collection of film posters and matchboxes from India. They were collected by English artist and illustrator Matt Lee.

Matchboxes

Matchboxes from the Subcontinent. Collected during my time working from Bangalore, these matchboxes are the tangible memories of my various travels and experiences through India. The random and disparate juxtapositions of the imagery encapsulate the mix of historic, mythological and contemporary visual culture in India. New matchboxes are added regularly. An interview about this matchbox collection can be read over at www.60over90.com.

Three out of the four topics in today's post came from the colorful blog that deserves some love, today and tomorrow.

Optical Illusions

The Best Color Illusion We've Seen

Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s incredible optical illusion website

Via @colourlovers; the best color illusion... posted first at Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s incredible optical illusion website and found over at Discover Magazine's blog.

"You see embedded spirals, right, of green, pinkish-orange, and blue? Incredibly, the green and the blue spirals are the same color. At first I thought Richard was pulling our collective legs, being a trickster of high magnitude. So I loaded the image in Photoshop and examined the two spirals. In the two squares displayed below, the one on the left is colored using the same color from the blue spiral, and on the right using the green spiral."

3gen

Flickr

"This is the desription of the Flickr set 3gen by |||||||||||||||||||: ▲ 3 üç üçgen triangle three trois 三 ג ๓ ٣ III ► ◄ ▼ drie Գ ३ γ´ Ⅲ trys trejetas sān колмо 叁 tri ∆.
Everything clear?" - today and tomorrow

Salmon is a great and fun color which is rarely used and seen. It is a nice change and a great way liven things up a bit, while also softening a look as well. Do you like the color salmon and are you currently using it in your home?

[image above: wallpaper, pendant, diamond bedding, patchwork bedding, tray, pillow, knob]

Brown and beige are rather serene and natural colors. Brown is dark and heavy and beige is light and creamy. Yes, the two can also be viewed as bland and boring, but like the many different colors that exist it can be beautiful and even chic when done the right way.

Creating interaction through the experimentation of new media and physical computing, the Shanghai Based 'multi-discipline design company,' Super Nature makes things that make me wish I could experience them first hand. And though I suspect the images do them no justice, the videos provided on their site for each of their projects can at least give us a secondhand look at the imaginative color interaction of their installations.

Co-articulation Color Construction

C.C.C. is a synthesis structure of color terminology and new vision of geometrical forms that could be perceived as a visual metaphor through time, space and the sense of movement. It uses water as a medium for visual display as water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. A simple visual form could be articulated by extending the “color wave” and forms a three dimensional form within a liquid space. Through user interaction, color, sound and form transformation are synchronized with the kinematic movements that controlled by the user’s hand movement. For more information: C.C.C. (Co-articulation Color Construction)

Gorgeous and intriguing; macro shots of soap bubbles perfectly captured by artist Bogdan Chesaru. And I can't help but agree that the name of his website is also a good description of his work: a kind of magic.

Artist Statement

“A Kind of Magic” gallery depicts the natural iridescent colors you see when light catches a clear soap bubble.

Simply put, I photograph light interference on soap film - a physical phenomenon that surrounds our everyday lives and yet it goes largely unnoticed.

As seen through the camera lens, a vibrant scenery of shapes and patterns, swirling and dancing on the edge of time, arouse both the eye and mind with a sensation of spatial elasticity. Driven by a strong minimalist impulse, my work is a venture into this playground of the most faint air currents, molecular forces and gravity’s relentless pull.

Viewers are invited to freely construct their own visual narrative as they catch a glimse into the ephemeral universe of the soap bubble.

Breathe… click… exhale… The eternal torn from the momentary. A Kind of Magic.