The suspense has been high between two layers of voting and over 2,000 participants - the Betabrand Palette-Sock Contest has finally come to a close. So without further adieu, the winners are...

Luna Rose "Urban Nature" | Northern Dancer "80 proof socks" | earlgrey "Good Morning"

These striped palette-socks will be sold in packs of three together in time for the Holidays over at Betabrand.com.

 

A big congratulations to these three ladies! They will each receive a $100 Betabrand gift card, their username on the sock packaging, five free sock three-packs and recognition on the Betabrand site in photos/videos (when able).

For the rest of you, Betabrand is offering great pre-order savings on the winning shirt and socks. And a special 20% discount on everything else at Betabrand.com. Click either of the links below...

COLOURlovers Striped Socks: $33 $25 Pre-Order Price

COLOURlovers Plaid Flanel: $80 $60 Pre-Order Price

A Look Back at the 30 Finalists & COLOURlovers Votes

Enjoy a looksie at the 30 most loved striped socks in phase one. Again, great job everyone, thanks for participating!

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Pitter patter I hear a lot of palettes waiting to be worn on your feet! We recieved over 2,000 entries in the Betabrand Striped Sock Design Contest! Here we are in the final round - 30 finalists have been determined with the highest LOVES. I can't believe only three will win?! The winning sock designs will be sold as a 3-pack and ready for the Winter holidays.

Voting ends Tuesday, September 27th at 5:00 pm Pacific. Only THREE entrants will win and you only get to vote once! Additionally, FIVE lucky voters will win a prize from the Betabrand product line! So get your bunz over there and make it count!

Also, Betabrand is giving everyone a discount code:

"StripeSaver" is good for 20% off until the end of the September.

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COLOURlovers spend countless hours creating amazing Patten Templates using Seamless Lite. Today, we are happy to announce some amazing new feature updates to the in-site seamless pattern design process.

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Along with the new features, Seamless Lite has been given some big love and a smoother, speedier designing experience should be noticeable.

How-To: Custom Shapes + Shape Gallery from COLOURlovers on Vimeo.

How-To: Custom Shapes + Shape Gallery

"Save as Shape" Tool

You can now save individual elements using the newly installed “Save as Shape” tool. This will allow you to keep those wonderfully complicated design elements you have been creating for a single Pattern Template. Only NOW, you can re-use those awesome pieces in any number of Pattern Template variation by using, “My Shapes” located in your Shapes Library on Seamless Lite (when you are logged in).

 

 How To Use "Save as Shape"

In Seamless Lite, create a shape from multiple shapes using the preexisting shapes in the Shape Library. Select all layers that make up this custom shape. No need to group these either, when you save the shape as a single element it will automatically group it and give it the name you give your shape upon saving,

Select your shape layers and click, Save as Shape" in the layer tools area. 

Preview your shape element, give it a title, description if you want, tags and then Save Shape.

That simple! At this point, shapes cannot be shared with one another (unless you do that privately - it's your choice).

Shape Galleries: A Place to Show Off  Your Abilities!

A new gallery for all of your custom shapes, will be added to your profile page the moment you create and save your first shape with the "Save as Shape" tool.

 

Gallery element for your Shapes (above)

Gallery view of your shapes allows the same filter-view options as other creations on the site.

Each shape has its own information page just like the other creations on CLCOLOURlover.com. Everyone has the ability to LOVE, FAVE and SHARE this shape made by you! Additionally, you have the ability to download the .SVG file, located under the, made "with Seamless Lite" link and DELETE or EDIT the shape profile under the OPTIONS drop-down.

Shapes will also stream on to the homepage of COLOURlovers.com as they are being created. So let's see what you got?!

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

Here we are again COLOURlovers! Get your Color Caps on and start putting together some amazing palettes for some way cool, striped socks by Betabrand! Just think about it, this Winter you, your fellow COLOURlovers and the rest of the world could be wearing one of your palettes on their feet!

We were stoked to work with our friends at Betabrand on the COLOURlovers Plaid Flannel Shirt and we're even more stoked to get the chance to work with them again on these awesome socks!

Browse the Contest Gallery | Create a New Entry Now!

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The Striped Socks Contest ~ 3 Winners!

The contest will be open one week, from September 14th - 22nd at 12:00 AM PDT. The 30 most LOVED entries will then move on to further voting at Betabrand.com.

Each COLOURlovers member is LIMITED TO THREE (3) ENTRIES... The entry submission page will let you know how many you have left. P.S. There's no way to change your entries so choose wisely! :)

Entering the Striped Sock Contest:

You can either browse through the most wonderful palettes you've already created and enter one of those... or get freshly inspired to create a new perfect palette to hug some toes.

Use a Palette You Already Created:

You can easily submit a current palette in your collection by going to your palette's information page.

Notice on the RIGHT column there is a nifty pair of socks just chill'n out with your palette on them. Just click the button, "Enter Betabrand Sock Contest."

You can even edit your palette before submitting. *I changed one of my grey's to white (above).*

OR Create a New Palette - Live Preview:

Go to the Striped Socks Entry Page, and when it loads all you need to do is click one of those gray squares under the socks to start making your masterpiece. Each time you select a color the sock template will refresh with your new color to give you a live preview of what your finished product will look like. You can even drag the color squares (right-left) to rearrange the colors to get your stripes just perfect.

When you're done deciding on a palette and layout of your stripes. Fill out the title and remaining information (optional) and hit the CREATE ENTRY button.

And there you are! Give yourself a high-five and LOVE your design. We've provided additional social tools (twitter, Facebook, Google and StumbleUpon) to help you share your creation with your friends and boost your loves… remember that since the 30 most loved designs will move on to the finalist round over at Betabrand you'll want all the love you can get!

Don't forget we're all about the LOVE, so feel free to cruise around and love some of the other designs in The COLOURlovers Striped Socks Gallery.

3 Contest Winners Receive:

Winners will receive a $100 Betabrand gift card, their username on the sock packaging, five free sock three-packs and recognition on the Betabrand site in photos/videos (when able).

But you don't have to wait until the winners are announced to start building your COLOURlovers wardrobe. Betabrand is letting people pre-order both the CL Plaid Shirt & CL Striped Socks at a very nice discount… Click either of the links below.

COLOURlovers Striped Socks: $33 $25 Pre-Order Price

COLOURlovers Plaid Flanel: $80 $60 Pre-Order Price
 

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

Hello COLOURlovers!

Copyrights are well known topics that continually float around the community. So I've snagged someone in the business of creating and selling vector artwork to explain in laymen's terms the crazy in's and out's of copyright (with digital art). I'd like to introduce to the blog authorship, Ray Dombroski, founder of The Vector Lab (thevectorlab.com) and a COLOURlover himself.

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Enjoy the post ~ Molly Bermea / Blog Editor

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Intellectual Property and Copyrights

Whenever an artist creates a new original work in the United States as well as in many other countries, it is automatically covered under copyright protection.  With the use of licensing, that artist can grant certain additional rights to others. A license can be written to give someone else the right to resell the art or create derivative works (remix or change the art), for example. These licenses are important when it comes to using stock art or clip art for your own designs.