You wouldn't even know that the Roomba is a vacuum when looking through these photos. The idea of turning everyday things into art work is something more creatives thrive on, and this is no exception.

The "Roomba Art" series was originally produced by Tobias Baumgartner, Marcus Brandenburger, Tom Kamphans, Alexander Kroeller, and Christiane Schmidt of the IBR Algorithm Group and Braunschweig University of Technology. "We had a swarm of seven Roombas, each with a differently colored LED on top. The roombas are operating at the same time -- can you spot the collisions?" Source

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After this initial series was created several others tried their version of such an idea and pretty soon various versions of this concept were created and posted online. Hope you enjoy the round-up we have put together.

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Have any of you tried this yet? Would love to hear your thoughts on this awesome photo series and creative concept.

Zazzle is one of those totally awesome online brands that has just about everything you could wish for on one website. Aside from offering so many different products, Zazzle also gives you the chance to customize your own. Make sure you check out their selection of goods.

Did you all enjoy creating iPad cases for our Zazzle contest? I hope so. There were so many fabulous entries, you guys are great at creating some inspiring pieces. So thank you for entering.

Today we are here to announce the winners of the Zazzle contest.

• Grand prize winner will receive $500 + a copy of their winning iPad Sleeve
• 1 Runner-up will receive $100 Zazzle gift certificate + copy of their iPad Sleeve
• 2 Honorable mentions will receive $50 Zazzle gift certificates + copies of their iPad Sleeves

The runner-up who will be receiving a $100 Zazzle gift certificate + copy of their iPad Sleeve is: Vintage Flowers iPad Sleeve by HazelAgnes.

The 2 Honorable mentions who will be receiving a $50 Zazzle gift certificates + copies of their iPad Sleeves: PATTERN {chevron 011} by Schatzibrown

And finally, Vintage Floral by pinkinkstudio

Congrats to all the winners! Thank you so much to everyone who entered the Zazzle contest. I hope you had a lot of fun with this contest and we are excited to keep bringing you more.

I posted one of Andy Gilmore's pieces on the COLOURlovers Facebook page a few weeks back. While digging deeper into the site, I found myself in awe over every single piece. I don't have enough space to feature them all on this blog post, but I would highly recommend checking out his entire collection of work if you are as impressed as I am by this small feature.

Creating magazine covers is nothing new for Andy. He shows plenty of them in his body of work. I do however remember this Wired issue which I thought was great when I saw this. Opposite of Wired is the cover he created for the New York Times Key Magazine.

Here are a series of excellent pieces using bright colors and some very modern shapes.

Source for all images: Andy Gilmore

What do you think of this art? Would you use these patterns on something fun such as your iPhone case or throw pillows? Let us know what you think.

When lots of people gather in a park and fly kites together, the outcome is one incredibly colorful sky. Here are some  photos from Kite Fest in Austin, Texas.

What colors do you see when you look at these shots? Woud love to see what color palettes and patterns you COLOURlovers come up with!

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Has anyone attended any fun and colorful activities recently? Would love to see what you are all doing!

Today we are here with a really fun iPad sleeve design contest brought to you by Zazzle. Have you taken the time to play on  Zazzle yet?

The site is filled with so many awesome products from iPhone + iPad cases, office products, clothing and accessories and just about everything else you could want. What's more, they have an option for you to go ahead and design your own pieces. Want to put your artwork on t-shirts? Zazzle can do that!

We are excited to announce the Zazzle iPad sleeve design contest. We are calling upon the COLOURlovers community to design the coolest sleeve you can through zazzle.com. Once you have created something you love, submit the design and share it so you can get lots of votes on your submission.

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How it Works:

Participants will be designing an iPad sleeve using the design tool on zazzle.com. Here is how to enter:

• Create a Zazzle Account (It’s free!)
• Download our iPad Sleeve Templates and use them to create your design.
• Go here , select the sleeve you’d like to create and use your design to finalize your entry.
• “Post for Sale” (red link towards the bottom right) your iPad Sleeve with the tag colourloversipadcontest in the Zazzle Marketplace

For the official rules, find out more on zazzle.com. You’re done! Now you can go vote for your favorites but clicking the “like” button below the entry!

The Prizes:

• Grand prize winner will receive $500 + a copy of their winning iPad Sleeve
• 1 Runner-up will receive $100 Zazzle gift certificate + copy of their iPad Sleeve
• 2 Honorable mentions will receive $50 Zazzle gift certificates + copies of their iPad Sleeves

We will be announcing the winners on May 14, 2012. Good Luck to all and happy designing!

Did you know that adding foods to your diet that are high in pigmentation is one of the best things that you could do for your health and creativity? Broccoli, carrots, beets, peas, blueberries, raspberries, cherries, etc. all contain whopping doses of antioxidants, the super-hero of the super-fit, chasing away free radicals that cause disease and degeneration.

Every runway supermodel knows that the key to staying slim and shiny is to avoid foods that are white, or pale in color—potatoes, breads, pastas, white rice, sugar—and to eat fabulously colorful foods that are ALIVE and JUICY.

Not only will brightly colored foods make you a brightly colored person, (add a rosy glow to your cheeks, bring the sparkle and shimmer back to your eyes) they become a cheerful accent splash of color to your kitchen when stacked in a bowl near the Kitchen-Aid or french press, and make a lively center-piece for the dinner table.

Dust off that brightly painted Mexican-ceramic bowl and fill it up with the season's best apples and oranges and color your world from the inside out.

Today we are featuring an awesome artist and giving you all a bit of an insight into the creative process behind his pieces of art. Each piece is bright and vibrant and  each tell a story.

This talented artist started small and kept, all the while he gained more and more traction in the blogosphere and now you can see his art work featured all over. The artist behind it all is Adam Sidwell, AKA The Skid. Check out his Tumblr for lots more pieces are art that are not featured here, you'll definitely get lost in the great color palettes and pieces he has created.

First up, why don't you tell the community a bit about who you are, what you do, how long you have been doing it.
I was into illustrating as a kid. In 2010 I started doing weekly drawings of pop culture, started taking requests, and would post one online each week. The blog started gaining traction after some time and I started freelancing.

What past experiences do you think have contributed the most to where you are now?
Growing up as a kid in the 80's, playing video games and watching movies like rambo and terminator, that had the most influence on me in terms of content.

How do you choose your color palettes?

Generally I kind of stick to 6 colors. I primarily use green, yellow, red, orange, purple, blue. I usually use a lot of complimentary colors in the same series. As long as the colors are bright and vibrant there is really no method to the madness to the way I choose colors.

What colors do you think we will see a lot of in 2012?
I started out using very traditional colors but I like more neon and vibrant colors. I did a series of video game box posters and the way those colors blended together are my favorite colors of any piece.

What is your general design process?
I stick to thumb-nailing and sketching. Then I take it into photoshop and I usually redraw the image because I don't use a wacom board the first time around. I like to get the feel of real pen and paper. I print out the wacom board drawing on water color paper and watercolor it, then rescan it then touch it up. Then the color palette comes to form and I start creating from there.

As an artist, what is the best advice you have ever received?
There is always going to be someone more talented than you but you can always work harder than them. I'm from the midwest, hard work ethic is what I grew up with. I was a part of a blue collar family and it is transformed to the digital sense.

Source: All Photos by Adam Sidwell

When you are feeling stumped, where do you turn for inspiration?
Tumblr, but it is sort of  bad because I get stuck. I don't explore that much outside of that.

What's one thing you tell designers that are just starting out?
I feel like a lot of people take things too personally, whether it comes to critiquing or posting and not getting likes then giving up. I started out and my friends at work and my mom were basically the only one's following me. I kept at it and the blog gained footing and things took off. That never would have happened if I just gave up. It is kind of hard receiving negative criticism. I see artists start up and get discouraged and though they are creating awesome art work they give up. Basically, just keep going and going.

As individuals, we change our colors often. We reflect our inner palettes in what we wear, what we buy, where we cast our gaze. We have the freedom to engage unlimited combinations whenever we see fit.

But what about the colors of the websites we visit daily? Do websites shift in these same ways, or even at this rate? Over the course of a year we change our color preferences untold times, but looking at how websites evolve over a similar time period indicates something quite different.

I recently examined a representative sample of websites that have gone through a significant redesign in the last year to analyze just how much, if at all, these websites changed in terms of their inner color palettes. These few examples represent a trend I noticed - that some websites have gone through massive shifts in layout, usability, and general structure. In comparing their palettes, however, you don't see such shifting.

In the example of target.com below, you can see that there has been an obvious overhaul of structure, reorganizing the site completely. While there is a subtle increase in a practical implementation of color 'coding' (notably pink to indicate a 'spring' item and brighter link colors), the base of the palette remains the same. This shows that Target knows the importance of evolving functionality (and product) independent of base branding colors.

Another great example of a structural overhaul is bankofamerica.com. Here you can see they've moved to a centered layout and are using a few brighter blues for specific calls to action, but again, the remainder of the palette remains unchanged.

Another website I took a look at was twitter.com, which went through somewhat of a transformation last year. Save for a button color change (for the better) the base of their palette and branding remains the same.

Of particular interest this past year were the transformations undertaken on dennys.com. Around July last year they went with an overhaul not just of structure but of color as well. I don’t think the color portion of the overhaul was that successful, as a look around six months later shows they've reversed their direction. They've gone closer to what they had previous to the saturated yellow look, dialing back to a more traditional food-friendly palette of light tans/browns and creamy whites. Did Denny’s find out how much is too much? Was bright yellow too much of a stretch from what is traditionally a red-dominated industry?

In the case of our recent Purple.us redesign, you can see that we’ve maintained the base of the palette, only adding a select aqua to draw emphasis to the site’s informational hierarchy. Again, you can see how important the core of a palette is to the site’s overall presentation.

It is important to understand that while sites adapt and alter in various ways and degrees, there are some decisions that must be absolutely correct in early stages of development, namely color. Color delineates brand. Color can define a site. Color resonates in the mind of the user, whether they notice or not. Color is vital. If a website requires modifications, initial color choice and primary concepts must be considered just as vital.

Today MOO and COLOURlovers are coming together to bring you a business card color palette contest. Just think about it, you have the chance to spruce up a pack of business cards that many people will receive that is sure to brighten their day when they do. Of course we know that this is the perfect task for the COLOURlovers community since you are all great when it comes to playing with color, so check out how to enter below and get going.

MOO is an online print company that creates a variety of materials including business cards, postcards, and MiniCards. The attention to design, focus on only a few products done well, and care for their customers, are just a few things that set MOO apart from other similar companies. Products that are high-quality are a must in making the best first impression possible, and MOO knows that, so they strive to offer top designs and make the process as easy as possible. Here are some of the pre-designed business card templates you will find at moo.com.

How to Enter:

Submit your best 5 color palette for a MOO business card pack. Once you have created something you are proud of, show it off! The palette will be in the gallery to gain "love" from the community.

As a tip, you can adjust the width of each color using the red bar right above the palette color.

Submissions close at the end of the night on Sunday April 8, 2012. You will have the chance to gain love notes until April 12, 2012. We will announce the winner on Friday April 13. The top five most ‘loved’ designs will be announced as the winners and these five designs will be bundled as a new COLOURlovers pack and will be available for sale on moo.com.

Once you create your awesome, check out the other entries and vote for your favorites.

The Prizes:

The people who created 5 most loved color palettes will each receive a $100 MOO voucher to be used at Moo.com for any of their available products.

Not only will you receive a voucher, but the 5 most loved palettes will be included in the next set of COLOURlovers business cards by MOO.

Good luck and get designing!

Crayola has been the standard for crayons, and at least partially responsible for bringing color naming to the mainstream for 126 years now.  The crayons and color names have come a long way from the standard 8 color crayon box of black, blue, red, green, brown, yellow, violet, and orange.

Over the years they've added plenty of new colors to their line of wax crayons but not all of those can still be found today. Some of those  colors have been discontinued or renamed, for various reasons, and since 1998 they've maintain a core collection of 120 colors, (check out our post 'All 120 Crayon Names and Color Codes' here in the COLOURlovers blog to see them all and grab their digital code equivalents).

The retired colors.

Retired colors are tucked away in the Crayola Hall of Fame but that's no place for color! So here we look back at those colors that are no longer at our finger tips but can live forever in our digital coloring books. Click on the colors to grab their digital equivalent from the COLOURlovers' library.

Header image from Wikipedia