The Most Colorful & Inspiring Creative Videos from a collection of the most popualr videos on vimeo.com. 12 videos. 30 minutes of fun, playful, creative & very colorful!

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Colourfornia by Nick Thompson

In The Land Of The Northern Lights by Ole C. Salomonsen

Color of light by Boris Ponomarev

Ljósið (previously known as Let Yourself Feel) by Esteban Diácono

Chlorophyll Skin by Lucy McRae

Optimist by Brian Thomson

floating by floating

TIJI "COLOUR" HD by AKAMA

Wall painting by Supakitch and Koralie by elr°y

Grindin'by Nobody Beats The Drum

Max TV Color Artist by Sebastian Langnickel

Ishihara - English version by Yoav Brill

Since the first comic was printed in 1933, many colorful stories have been told... and don't let the name distract you, not all of them are funny. Comics have had moving, adventurous, dark & serious stories that have entertained young and old for almost a century. The comic industry might be changing, but business is still huge... Comic-Con 2010 was attended by 130,00 people! And the surge of comics-to-blockbuster movie trend thats been happening the past decade is making sure the world of comics continues to be a big part of our modern pop culture.

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Paying homage to the colorful world of comic books, superheroes and villains... we wanted to take a closer look at the colors in comics and see if they too can tell a story...

Who Is Your Favorite Colorful Comic Book Character?

Good, bad... primary, secondary... Who's your favorite character and what colors are they? Do their colors stay true to some of the "rules" above?

As a kid, the Punisher was always my favorite character, although he's not a very colorful guy. :)

Comic Book Colors from the CL Community

We've known developer/designer Sahil Lavingia for a while now and have continued to be impressed with the apps and services he puts out. One app in particular we've had our eye on is his color app Color Stream, an iPhone app that helps create & save color palettes... Something near and dear to our hearts.

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So when the opportunity came along to acquire the app and provide continued color inspiration to the tens of thousands of Color Stream users, we jumped at the chance. And one of the reasons we made our iPhone app free is so all Color Stream users could switch over to our ColorSchemer app without having to re-buy anything. They'll be joining the nearly 100,000 users of the ColorSchemer app and can continue to get the updates for our top color app at no extra cost.

If you're a Color Stream user, now's a great time to join the family and get the free ColorSchemer app to continue to receive updates with the latest and greatest features and integration with the COLOURlovers community.

The Color Stream app was a well-designed and built app that worked great for creating palettes from scratch, or from a photo... but the biggest thing it was missing was an awesome community of creative people to share those palettes with, and now that's changing! We're excited to extend our community to more and more creative people and we look forward to even more inspirations that this growing and diverse mix of new users will create.

Download ColorSchemer for iPhone Now.

When I first built COLOURlovers as a weekend project I had no idea it would become this amazing community. At the time, I threw together a terms of use and privacy policy modified from some of the big sites on the web... and the language used about who owned the content you uploaded here was WAY too aggressive. Basically, it said we "owned" anything you uploaded. It may have said that in small print somewhere, but that's never how we thought about or treated your creations.

Recently we took the time and the budget to update the terms to appropriate language clearly stating that you own everything you create here... but that you give us a commercial license to also use your content (without this we couldn't run the site or showcase your work in things like the Color Inspirations book).

BUT... Updating the terms weren't enough, as we want to fully hand over control of your content to you. Today we're launching two new features that hand the rest of the control of content here at COLOURlovers to you, our awesome and creative members.

Rights Management for all COLOURlovers Content

Can I use this pattern as the background for my blog? Is it free to use this? I don't understand the license you provide for the content on COLOURlovers... We get questions like this all the time. And although we've had a Creative Commons license on the bottom of every page... It hasn't been very clear what people can or can't do with the content shared on COLOURlovers.

License Display Area
So we've added a new section in the right column of each creation page to clearly show the license for that content. There are icons and bullet-points to explain what is allowed with each specific license, as well as a link to the Creative Commons site to learn more about the license terms.

Changing Your Content Licenses
To change the license for a specific color/palette/pattern/etc. you can click the "Edit" link above the license box in the right column. A window will open and allow you to change the license for that specific creation.

Default License Settings
The default license for all content on COLOURlovers is a By Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike license. (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)

You can change your default license for all future creations in your account settings area (Set Default License). You can also update the license for all your existing content on this page. There is a checkbox at the bottom of the form to "Change All Existing" which will do a big bulk update for all your creations... ie, would you like to allow commercial usage of all of your existing content? You can do that here.

What Each License Means

There are a few different ways you can specify what people can and can't do with the content you share here on COLOURlovers.

All Rights Reserved
Nobody can use your creation without first getting your permission. This is the most protective license option. Ie, Selecting this license on a pattern template you've designed means that nobody else can color the template in. The license area for a creation with this license will link people to a page to send you a love-note to ask for permission to use the content.

Creative Commons
The Creative Commons is a non-profit that aims to "give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to keep their copyright while allowing certain uses of their work — a “some rights reserved” approach to copyright — which makes their creative, educational, and scientific content instantly more compatible with the full potential of the internet."

All creative commons license options include "By Attribution"... meaning people can use it as long as they credit you for the original creation.

Additional options under the CC license are:

Allow commercial use.
Selecting this license option will allow other people to use your creation in work that they sell or market commercial services with. It could be an Etsy seller using a pattern as part of a gift wrap paper package they sell, or a real estate agent using your pattern as the background of their website.

Allow derivative works to be created.
Selecting this license will allow users to remix & modify your original creation. For example, if you have created a pattern template that you would like others to be able to color in... it needs to be licensed with a derivative license.

Derivative works must be shared with the same license you’ve selected.
Selecting this option will require all derivative works to be shared with the same license as the original creation. If this option is set for a pattern template, there is no option to change the license terms of colored-in patterns. They must retain the original pattern template license.

License for Colors & Palettes

It's easier to understand these licenses in the context of pattern templates, but it's a little trickier when talking about named colors & palettes.

Colors
Technically you can't own the rights to a color (despite some large corporations trying to copyright their specific branding colors). All 16 million colors already exist, we're just allowing you all to come up with clever names to associate with those colors. For now, all color names on COLOURlovers will continue to have our default (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) license.

Palettes
You also can't technically own the rights to the usage of certain colors together... ie, if you make a palette with Red, White & Blue... you can't prevent the US from printing more flags. What you can own the rights to is the combination of the colors in a specific order, and or the amount of colors presented as a 5 color palette like the way we do here on COLOURlovers. Ie, if you select an All Rights Reserved license for your palette: Somebody else can't present your palette anywhere else the way it is presented here on COLOURlovers. Even with an All Rights Reserved license though, they could still use that color combination to draw an illustration or design a logo.

We'll be adding a section to the site to explain the licenses better moving forward, so if you have any questions or think we should better explain something, please let us know.

Deleting Creations from COLOURlovers

If you really own all your creations, then you should be able to remove them from COLOURlovers too... and now you can. There is a new OPTIONS button in the About header for all creations. You're able to Edit & Delete your creations from here.

It's rare, but we know that sometimes people want to remove something they've shared on COLOURlovers... a palette they no longer love, a template they messed up on, etc. You're now able to delete all your creations, but the way we handle how things are deleted is a little different depending on what's being deleted. Here's a little more about what happens when you delete your different kinds of creations:

Colors. When you delete a color it will remove the color from your creations list, it will clear out the name, description, loves, faves, comments and all other associated information. The color will now be available for another member to name and list as one of their creations. A deleted color will still show in any palette or pattern, but will no longer have a name and will simply display the HEX value.

Palettes. When you delete a palette it will remove the palette from your creations list, it will clear out the name, description, loves, faves, comments and all other associated information.

Patterns. When you delete a pattern it will remove the pattern from your creations list, it will clear out the name, description, loves, faves, comments and all other associated information.

Templates. When you delete a pattern template it will remove the template from your creations list, it will clear out the name, description, loves, faves, comments and all other associated information. Any patterns colored in by other members will still exist on the site even after you delete the template, but no new version will be allowed to be created with the template.

*Gone But Never Forgotten*
Deleted content might still show up in search results in COLOURlovers for a brief time until our database runs it's regular updates to clear it out. Badges for your deleted creations will still exist, but the badge will be updated to show that the content has been removed, and the page for the creation will show that the creation has gone missing.

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OMG RGB/CMYK NYC! We're very excited to be partnering with Print, Pantone & the Art Directors Club on the brand new Color Conference, Oct. 4-6 in NYC. Yours truly will be co-emceeing the conference with Jude Stewart.

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About the Color Conference

The rules for color aren't black and white. We each experience the world uniquely and that creates an awesome opportunity for each of us to share our own perspective with others. We're really excited about being together with so many creative folks to share the color love. This event isn't just hearing about the color work of top industry professionals... but also interacting with color, networking with other colorful folks and sharing your ideas about color in workshops and panels.

NEW YORK – August 22, 2011 – Print Magazine today announced the first-ever Print Color Conference, taking place October 4-6, in New York City. Presented in partnership with Pantone and COLOURlovers, and hosted by The Art Directors Club, the event is an exploration of color by leaders in the graphic design, art, fashion, lighting, and interior design industries. The focus of Print’s Color Conference is to illuminate and elevate the discussion of color; its usefulness and impact on society, its importance as a communication tool; and its impact on the worlds of art, design, politics, branding, and everyday lives. Full program details – including speakers, interactive demos, and networking opportunities – and conference registration is available now at printcolorconference.com.

Peppered throughout the event will be interactive demonstrations in which attendees have the opportunity to experiment with color, thanks to our sponsor, 3rd Ward. Recognized as an incubator for innovation and possibility, 3rd Ward members enjoy a supportive community and top-of-the-line creative resources, including photo studios, media lab, jewelry studio, wood & metal shops, and a huge education program.

Use the COLOURlovers Promo Code "LOVE" for $75 OFF
www.printcolorconference.com

Speakers include...
Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute.
Gael Towey, Chief Creative and Editorial Director at Martha Stewart.
Darius Monsef, Founder & CEO of COLOURlovers (That's me! :) )
Jude Stewart, Print Contributing Editor
...And More! full speaker list here.

Real Life Color Palettes!

The whole COLOURlovers team will be in the house mingling with fellow lovers of color and running a "Making Color Palettes in Real Life" interactive project where you'll be able to make and share physical big palettes. (We've done this before at our previous launch events... and in NYC we'll have even more colors to choose from!)

Colorful Conversations... A Panel You Can Help Lead!

I'll be helping to moderate some panels with the world's most talented color professionals... What do you think should be part of our colorful conversation? What questions do you think I should ask them? What's the most exciting, frustrating thing about color for you? ...? I'll give you a shout-out when I ask any questions you suggest.

We look forward to coloring with you in NYC! And don't forget to use the COLOURlovers Promo Code "LOVE" for $75 OFF!
www.printcolorconference.com

What we love more than anything is helping people share their ideas & inspirations. A couple years ago we added the ability for members to color in 100 preset pattern templates and we saw your creativity flourish, but we also saw an even greater opportunity... To give you all the power to design your own pattern templates!

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And without being able to save your work, import your own custom shapes, work only in grayscale... and with only our simple web version of Seamless, in the past 12 months our awesome members created more than 80,000 original seamless patterns.

So it's with great excitement for the amazing creations that will be shared that we release the more powerful desktop version of Seamless Studio!

 

Special COLOURlovers Member Price

And as a special thank you to all our supportive members here at COLOURlovers, we're giving you a $20 discount on the regular price of $49, just for being a member. Thanks for Sharing the Love!

 

A Showcase of Amazing Seamless Patterns

It truly is magical what you all are able to create using simple shapes and only 5 colors... Check out the Showcase to see some examples of the wonderful patterns being created with Seamless Studio. Or check it out for yourself, Download a FREE 15 Day Trial of Seamless Studio...

 

Beautiful, Easy to Use & Affordable

Existing pattern design tools & software were expensive, hard to use & not much fun to play with. So as part of our mission to make design super easy and accessible to everyone, we made a beautiful, user friendly & affordable vector pattern design app. These are just some of the features we packed into Seamless Studio:

Import Custom Shapes
Open SVGs from other editors to use in your patterns.

Export to Other Formats
Save your pattern as a SVG, PNG, or JPG image.

Layers / Groups
Organize and rearrange shapes simply.

Save / Open
Create projects and come back to them later.

Easy Upload
Upload your patterns straight to COLOURlovers.com.

Line Tool
Create wavy, sawtooth, straight, dashed, and dotted lines.

Infinitely Scalable
Export SVGs that scale beautifully to any resolution.

& More...
 

Start Sharing Your Patterns with the World!

Not only can you publish your patterns right to COLOURlovers.com from the app, you can also export your patterns as high res files to use in your own creative projects. Upload them to Spoonflower to get custom fabric! Print them out and sell them as part of a craft pack on Etsy! Turn a pattern into beautiful wall art with Imagekind! ...Woohoo!

Very exciting! - We've been working hard on a much-improved desktop version of the Seamless pattern-maker called Seamless Studio. Sponsored members of the community have been helping us test the beta and now we're opening up the beta to everybody else! We'd love your thoughts and feedback on the new app.

Download the Seamless Studio Beta Here:
http://docs.colourlovers.com/seamless-studio/install

Here’s some of the stuff we think you'll love in the new Seamless Studio:
* Save and open your templates as you're working on them
* Build your own custom shape libraries
* Import external shapes
* Upload templates directly to COLOURlovers
* Preview your COLOURlovers template in color
* Create patterns with unlimited colors
* Design on custom canvas sizes

Documentation and help sections for things like "Understanding the Interface", "Document Modes", "Custom Shapes" & more can be found here: Seamless Studio Documentation & Help

Get On The Seamless Notification List: Be the first to know when the full version launches!

 

---

 

*A Note on Importing Shapes with Seamless Studio*

With how talented our members are, it’s hard to know when they used their amazing talents to create a custom shape.. or when they imported a vector shape from another source.

It’s ok to import shapes from other creators when you have the appropriate permissions to do so. Please do not upload pattern templates that include imported shapes / images that are copyrighted. If you use shapes that are licensed with a creative common license, please link the source in the description. Unattributed pattern templates that include copyrighted content will be removed.

*How To Help Us Beta Test*

Once you've had a chance to play with the app, we'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Just copy and paste the text below into a love note to COLOURlover or email to love@colourlovers.com and send it along with your thoughts:

=======================================
Seamless Studio Beta Feedback
=======================================
Your name:

Your occupation:

Operating Systems tested:

Seamless Studio Feedback:
----------------------------
* Describe any problems encountered during installation:

* Describe your initial impressions of Seamless Studio:

* What features/tools, if any, did you find to be confusing or difficult to use?

* What new features do you like most about Seamless Studio?

* What do you think could be improved?

* Describe any problems or bugs encountered while testing Seamless Studio:

* Would you recommend Seamless Studio to a friend? Why or why not?

* What are the first 3 words that pop into your head when you think of Seamless Studio?

* How often do you use Seamless Studio?

* What other software programs do you use on a regular basis?

* Please describe any additional comments regarding Seamless Studio:

---

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Ever since the first palettes were shared on COLOURlovers I've wanted to see their awesomeness in print... And a few years ago I got in contact with the fine folks at HOW books who also wanted to help make it happen. We're stoked and honored to be able to share 3,000 amazing color palettes from our community in a printed book with readers in real life.

Color Inspirations is on Pre-order at Amazon. Check it out!

Palette Galleries

3,000 palettes to be exact have been selected and organized by hue into a printed inspiration gallery. Each palette proudly displaying its name as well as the name of the member who created it and the HEX, RGB & CMYK values for the colors in the palette. The index of the book has each palette name, creator and a link to its page here on COLOURlovers... so new offline lovers can connect to the community online.

Inspiration & Information

Along with the 3,000 color palettes there are 10 inspirational and informational color articles.
Thanks to Dave, our long time blog writer, for help putting it all together!

A Who's Who of Awesome Palette Makers!

We gathered the palettes for Color Inspirations 2 years ago, so unfortunately we're missing some of our wonderful new members creations in the book... but we still managed to share 1,000+ member's palettes. We've been honored to showcase your work here on COLOURlovers and give you some recognition in the physical world too!. All the members who have a palette in the book are listed below:

_selicious_ _stefan -mehow- !REVOLUTION ♥mynameisemma♥ [pine] * amber * ดุ๊กดิ๊ก 3k- 3tips 7Zippyy a peace of mind a.mar.illo aajewelry Aaris AberNat Absolian accebe achtungarch actionhalo adgrapho Ae aemelia afro_kid afrodusa agia ah-68 aimeex aja ajeanne ajoyfulheart ajvelasco Ak akiraakira albegrafic Albiniaera aleja2306 alemc alexpapillon AlicjaCz alicupcake alisa-beata alisgilbert alitasea Alonis alpen alraceiram Alska alullaby alumina alwaysflyaway alyssa amarieh.2010 amasian ambu1959 amdillon Amo amour_aérien amphetamiiine. amy amyjanejane ancANC Ancasta aNdii O.o Andrew andrirose angela.schippers angelafaye anglepoiselamp animesh1978 Anitra anL anna.titrektaszade annajak Annie39 ANOTHERmixtape anycolourilike apestoarayos Apollonia the Red aquamarina_x Arachnakid Arala arcele ardienne ARDIS Arelyn530 arieleartist arsmephisto Arsmundi artmama artnsoul3 artsiefartsietjitsie ArtWench asphaltandair atzimbatm audumbla aujus aurorafirst autopsyturvy avilluk axl Azure b_oliveira babaloo1991 BadBubble balibina BangBang barnicesvalentine bashfulgrl19 basketcase batspit BatteryLow Bbbbb1 be_nice Beaumont Beautiful Disaster BeaVeryWell becbecx3 beccafly beekman belicop bellelle bemyescape BerryBiscuit bertiemasson bethmallory BetsyB big orange bijouloveshues bimms bitterstrawberries Bizarrote bkendall Bleacheuse blocparty blondie1111 bloodoftrees blooyelaw bluefields bluefrog bluejaykt BlueLou bobthemole BobWestbrook Bolstar Jabricruds bonafilia boofus bookluvr7 bradhaan brainwash-ed BrandoBlue brittneywong broadway_junkie brockfrench Bryony bubukatagz bunga_kampus bunigrl33 burbuia burning.room bzfxerly C-âme c2009 ca_mara caff calvio cameo cameobrio Canada is a hoser candycrack caori Captain Amazing Cardboardcat cardgazer carlascribbles carloscarlos carolcarol123 Carolhue carolinajewel CarolinaSantos carolreine Cascion Davi caucaxican CeEmLee Ceisdein ceya chancho chaosjewels CHAR! charcal chavelonni chelles~snail chelly2012cheer Cherry Choc CherryHamilton cherylsart cheshirecat Chi chiffonblues chippedpolish Chiu Keung 超強 chopsuey ChristineFelicity Cinnamon415 Cinnamon6 circeus circuscarnival cityfivethousand clairyfairy clarise49 Claudio Zeiger claymare clearquietmind clemlou cloacina discordia cloudyblue cn283 codename_gimmick cogani cokaine colore Colorful Rose colorgasm ColorGrrrl Colorguru coloristica colorli(f)e colormemilk colorserenity COLOURlover comicalchaos compulsiveboy consonant Continents cookii Couchy Couleur-Rouille courtz.x3 cperez criscj criscrasp Cristian Cristoba cross Crystalhorse cstallions Cucutor cursive Cyber Oink Czova dammar DandaLuna DaniCalifornia danielgroot danTIME Darc Joan darkmotion DarkStar DarlingFloy DauphineAline dawn-in-nz daydream_analysis dayna_beck daynw DayStarArts

dc_larien death—of—design Deco24 deekajane dejapew dekadence deliops deliquescence delphian Deltakatachre dennisthemenace Derfell desaturainbow DESIGNJUNKEE despise DevilsApricot dhruv Dia DianaNotacat DillPickle Dimitris dinsdale disenchanted[me] divineresilience division DK_Assasin_Indy dkvision dmercer dontbeshy dr.afaf dr.brontosaurus dr.girlfriend DrA dragonballzCZ Drama dramatique Dreamagent 2 dreamer80 DreamsComeTrue Dreamsphiire drumma duluoz dviant2 dz dztronic eajahn Earth easter echo1 eclipsed_by_night edelineedz egege egenerica Eimii eine-der-guten electragiselle electrikmonk Electrohallaca electroluv electroniclove elephantshoe EliteSupreme elpasa01 elsie432 Elukka em-tastic emblakeslee emi emi emi emilymas emmalaiho Emmett EnaBean Ennuidemme enrica enviee equinorev eraserqueen ericaspooner erin19 erinblue_eyes erushh Esquire essexed_girl etherealmccoy etoiletpapillon euthanasia evad Eve evelyn evolutioneve ezytiger F_l_a_g fADed faded jeans Faeleia Faerenach faeriewhisper fairy tales falcifer Farron fashionfuchsia fayemarie fazai38 felicityflowers ferrumaeternum Feyd Fidgety FinnDesign firecracked FireLilyAMG firstlove Flauntvida FlavouredArt fleshy fleur148 flip_n_twist23 florayfauna flyaway330 forgetful foSho fr34k3d 0ut franklinsoler FranzKamikaze free88eluv free88eluv2 freeskier89 Frozen. fttr fucknozzle Funky Diva FunkyFreshFox g l e e * G.G. Gabinete Curiosidade gagavida GamehenGraphics gardengirl GD@Bundah geeksmakemehot gemmatone gentlefall gerbert ghighi gibbygirl gillianmarie gillymr girlgonexgrey gisforgretchen glalalamour Glitz GlueStudio goldheart goldpolkadots Gordie Gosh gosling gracie_gracers GrannyAnny granola graphicjam greatwhiteshark greenie GreenMyEyes Gretis Grey Lord Griphin groutboy gservo Gsill guttterglittter Hachi haelii Hailey2005 Haleigh halex12 hamudi hana* Haneari Hanka Hanyb happyprince HartnSoul hatta hawkarrow32 heartbeat heavyteeth HeckyesBree hedvajz hellebore helloeien hemingwaycafe hey_hey_hello heykelley Highwireart hikariblue himu hino hiver hodero hollowdoll holybloodyhead honestiago huckleberry finn hueific husimoto iambu iamgavin_ ibereborges IcyLeopard ieatrulers ignisium iheartbeatles ikan ikidomari il morto ildardo illumina Ilmerlo iloveyourguts imaginatif imawesam inbetween indiethought indigoliime infragilis inger Inna* insitu inskidahv interhuss into_thesea iona Irishdancer92 IronMAN Isadóra isamucci IshakPasha ishkabibble isotope.151 Itseh itzme jablanc jacky t jambalaya Jana_M janeaeroplane janiejones januarysun jasminedragon JasonJ jayanth Jazzzi jbarton5 Jejune Ennui jeki14 Jelly Wren Jemi_26 jemimapuddleduck jenb jennijee jennyariane jennyhelmbold jeremycole jessa jessicabrown

jfo333 Jhi-Yong Kim jikama jilbert jimjim421 jimmyjames jinxykb jkangasroo jkschlitz joabear Joaneh JoAnneWare jody jodybethw Joelle jono-renton jordan7485 jordanne joshw joy_of_summer joyseline juanjosecastillejo Julee Junecat JZAV kaaa kaihellyeah kalindy Kannard Karabou Karmaverick katastrophexlove kate_sfd katela katemasen katemess katiekat013 katies651 katinasunrise katrinawitch katry katszp Katyloux kay sizzle Kay-lii-Kay kayaak kaycee kcolours kelliot Kels kerickson66 Kevindeed kevinrcurtin kfarm kiboo Kikiriki kilizman kimberlybird Kiras kirei kitkitsee KittnChopz kixo klip koala988 kokorophotography konikae Kool Kreations koraih KRepage krishafish krritika ksantipa kudelka Kyloriq KyotoCutie la_noisette Lacey lacieface lacura Lady Beth Lady Manderley ladysuean lagunabeach laleh1979 laquimera laSilvi latenebreux lauren-laughs Laurennnn88 lauruce Lauz LBL1 lconrad1 leadwhite leah81 leahforester leahmariephoto leahollow leapingwaters LeatherSofa leaxharris leephi leezadee leliophelia Lemonhoney lenders88 Lentil Lerner lesaint leslie lhlins Libbywalters Liberated-Llama lickety split liddle_r liekejansbeken lifeisbutadream lightningmccarl lightupthesky lilivy Lillium Lilsis LilyJade Linsomnia Lirael_Ellimere lis-sa LittleMissChaos Livielle liz_loves_lemons lizcrimson LizElsewhere ljoobitza lllara lluscious LMJ LMVancheri loesje logochic Lolig lomuelle lopezcem Lorelai loveless.butterfly lovelyfailed LovelyLena lovelyrita lovemycolors15 lovenoxmom loveSKE lovestruck LTSVN LUCIFUGE ROFOCALE Lucy88 luffly lukecho lukeyg Lulu 05 lulu* lulujones lunalein lutterlagkage m0ddie ma_ mabills maccise mache macika madda madmod001 maeeileenii magz Mahala74 mahonai maigi Maire Wolf MaisieMartin Maitê malchickiwick malijova Maly Man Oil manekineko Maneko mangobee mansi manton Marco Antonio margareto marialovescolour marijo27 markee marrael marwapattern mastash matanuska matildonia mattmorrison84 MattyD maxlair maxx101 mbwebdesign mckinley meesha melanieee MELIN melissaliveslikethis melissophobia Meowler merc12 Meskalin23 Mesmerize metaphorical beast Method264 Miaka Michael Edgerley Midoriko mierlagypsy miho miice mikalababieeeeee mili* milkbubbles Miller millieyay mimì2 mimès mimo mimossito mint mirindziakova misat* misatakashino Miss_Anthropy MissManda missprivate MiszJasmeileen mitten mixtape mklaman mllemartini mm184nomore modmoxie mofaha Mokoon MollyCupCake MollyT monicamo MonkeyMan504 Monokai Monster! Moody Moofins moonbear moonielove mooshe moosmutzelchen morganantoinette morganlaine mostlyabsent mothball mousyaesthete mr.white mravka mrjeff

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A Note on Palette Sourcing

Before we had a chance to announce the book, some members found it and posted some concerns about how we sourced the palettes. Members were also surprised it had never been mentioned... Our bad. We should have done a better job keeping you all informed.
As for rights, no worries. You still own the rights to all the creations you share here on COLOURlovers, but you also extend us the right to share your work commercially, like here on this website and in promotional projects like this book.

Six years ago in my grandmother's loft, I built out a little idea I had... to let people name & share colors and for others to rate and review those colors. That little idea quickly evolved into 5 color palettes and the beginning of the COLOURlovers community. Since then millions of colors have been named, more than 1.5 million palettes have been created and we're 500,000+ members strong... and a 5x Webby Nominee for Best Community!

Twelve months later Chris aka Pureform started rewriting all my code for COLOURlovers (I won't say it was poorly written before... but he probably would) and making it a much more scalable and feature rich site. And now all of the awesome things that keep this community creating and sharing have been built with his fingers.

And a little more than a year ago I sat down with a friend in the color world, Aaron of ColorSchemer, and we decided that it made a lot of sense for us to merge our projects and work on things full time. It is in this past year that we've had the luxury to focus on COLOURlovers and what it could ultimately be.

The Big Vision

And as we worked on improving the site and developing our business strategy, we had an epiphany. We realized that we didn't need to create a business model that extracted value from the actions of our members (ie, Color Trending & Market Research)... we could build a business adding value to the actions of our members by continuing to create software and services they wanted and to build a way for them to earn a living doing what they love. We realized our mission.... To make good design simple and to empower creativity.

With this vision for the future of COLOURlovers in our hearts and minds we started having conversations with investors who had been successful building their own amazing services and communities. People like the founders of Wordpress, Flickr, Vimeo, Reddit, Groupon & Yahoo!... and VC funds that have invested in the biggest and best sites on the internet. If you'd like to read more about our funding it's been covered here.

Investing in the COLOURlovers Community

Before the big number whisks you off to a world where we're all rich, fat & happy... What we did was take on an investment because we believe in the future potential in what we're building and what you're participating in. The founding team of COLOURlovers is still working for well below market salaries... but now we have awesome perks like health insurance! :)

We're going to use the investment to grow the COLOURlovers team so that we can do a better job maintaining the features we have as well as building and launching new awesome things we have sketched out. The most important thing about having the money is helping us make better long term decisions for the good of our community. Before our funding, we spent a considerable amount of time just making sure were doing things to make enough money to keep our servers online. (And in the earlier days there were times where we were late on bills and both my business and personal accounts were overdrawn) Stressing about short term resources isn't helpful in building long term visions.

*Also, don't worry that we sold out our interest in COLOURlovers to investors who will now take over and change the site... Our investors are awesome people who believe in what we're doing and they wouldn't want to change anything about what we're doing... and the controlling interest of COLOURlovers is still with us the founders.*

The Growing COLOURlovers Team

If you haven't noticed yet, we updated the COLOURlovers About Us page with our two new family members: Molly & Brian. And we'll be adding more names to that page in the coming months as we hire the rest of the awesome team that will help us execute on our big vision. 

If you fit any of the open positions we have... it'd be awesome to promote from within!

Open Positions at COLOURlovers

+ Android / Java Developer

+ Biz Dev / Ad Sales / Partnerships

+ Delphi App Developer

+ HTML5 Developer

+ iOS / MacOS Developer

+ Majestic Unicorn (Web Developer with Design Skills)

+ Wordpress Theme Developer / Designer

 

Header Pattern Template by Gwenwhyfair, Pattern Colors by southpaws

Probably one of the most common criticisms we hear at COLOURlovers is "OMG, there are just so many wonderful colors to love!!!" and in an effort to help you find the perfect colors, we're making it easier by limiting the number of colors from 16 Million to 256 Shades of Gray. Don't worry though, there are still tens of thousands of combinations of grays that can be made into awesome palettes.

Helpful New Color Wheel

The below color wheel will help you use the new COLOURlovers site with all its wonderful gray colors.

Gray: A Huge Energy Saver

As a growing company we also have to think about costs... and displaying 16 Million colors cost a lot more money than displaying 256 shades of gray. With the huge amount of savings we'll make, we'll be able to hire more developers to build some awesome new features we have planned, like 1 color palettes. If you didn't know... the way computer screens make colors is to add light. And light is color.

One of the key arguments in favor of black screens is a 2002 research study produced by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory entitled "Energy Use and Power Levels in New Monitors and Personal Computers." The report indicates that "a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Indeed, that study reports that black screens consistently require less energy than white screens, regardless of whether the monitor is a CRT or LCD.
[source]

Some Gray Inspiration to Get Your Going

So, now that you know why Grays are so awesome. Here is some inspiration to help you usher in the new and very grayful COLOURlovers!

+Sky in Portland Oregon+

+Old Mustache & Beard+

+Elephant Butt+

Let Us Know What You Think

For some really weird reason, you might not love the idea of COLOURlovers without any color... if that's the case you can click here to turn off our little April Fools joke :)