pais·ley: noun  A distinctive intricate pattern of curved, feather-shaped figures based on a pine-cone design from India. For COLOURlovers, the Paisley is a lovely lace-like motif that can be produced in any measure of design and color scheme. Like fingerprints, not one is the same.

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When I look at the Paisley, I see amoebas, tadpoles and teardrops combined with floral genius.

How often do you see a Paisley? I think it's something we see so often, might pass it by in our every day lives. The history of the Paisley I found quite interesting! Where it came from, what the word Paisley  actually means, or why they call it a Paisley at all...

Fashion is always one season ahead, but now that Fall is really on its way, the things you've worn all Summer are starting to give way to the pressure of changing winds - literally!

Thankfully, one of the most noticeable Fall trends is suitable for sunny days and colder weather, too. A spectrum of yellows, oranges and tomatoey reds have been parading across the globe, whether by runway or street-style. But perhaps even more fun than the warm colors themselves are the variations on how to wear these statement pieces. Traversing casual to formal, these warm hued clothes have had their versatility proven. So would you dare to put on any of these pairs or are regular blue jeans more your speed?

1. Sabrina Meijer of AfterDRK 2. J. Crew bistro pants 3. Silvia Navarro on Chicisimo 4. Zara Man Fall 2011 5. Yigal Azrouël Fall 2011

Broken down by style: Amsterdam's Sabrina Meijer and Yigal Azrouël's Fall runway both channel chic European simplicity, but the outfits definitely don't lack impact: neutrals and black create a high-contrast, color-blocking effect when combined with saturated orange and amber trousers.

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Meanwhile, not everyone is content keeping it simple. Silvia Navarro uses a complementary color palette, mixing preppy blue hues with heavily saturated orange for a layered outfit that's anything but conventional. Fashion brand Zara styles a similarly layered look, but with subdued earth tones and cool neutrals to create a subtle complementary color combination.

The business world of app development is huge. With so many tools at our fingertips, I am constantly discovering new apps. Be it for iPhone, iPad, iTouch, Android, Blackberry and so on, I'm sure you're all like me when find I would be lost without some of my favorites.

I'll be researching and picking (at random) an app I feel is worth mentioning each month. This month's selection is by Dear Future Astronaut AB and a bunch of fun so far. What initially caught my eye was their color-wheel style logo. I love the colors and layout of the finished infographic too! Very clean and fun to look at. Kudo's to the developers!

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PHOTO STATS APP - 1st Infographic Creator for iPhone.

If you use your phone to take a lot of your point-and-shoot photos, and you really like to take photos, this is definitely for you! I've recently been playing around with it and it's pretty fun! At a base, .99 - totally worth the fun.

photostatsapp.com

If you haven't caught wind already, 'Elements' by Lisa Clair (lisadale69) is our winner of the Color-A-Plaid Shirt Contest by Betabrand + COLOURlovers. 

To be noted: I [mollybermea] am not responsible for Lisa's palette combination. I simply needed it in palette form for a badge in this post.

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Congratulations to Lisa for her fantastic design!

Here's what she gets:

- A $100 Betabrand gift certificate.
- Recognition on our Web site.
- A Betabrand plaid flannel shirt based on her design — the very first of the batch that we're selling this Fall! Each shirt will have her name on the label (see below).

 WOW, 5,000+ Submissions!

Betabrand wants to thank the COLOURlovers community for the more than 5,000 design submissions they received as well as a big thanks to everyone who voted - five (5) voters also won something special.  Check out Betabrand's announcement here.

"We love collaborating in order to bring new expertise and fresh perspective to Betabrand's daily commitment to invention and this has been one of the most satisfying collaborations we've been involved with to date. We can't wait to see the finished flannel shirts this Fall and we're looking forward to keeping in touch with the COLOURlovers community." - Jared :: Head of Design at Betabrand

If you're just now tuning in, check out the initial contest post, plus here were our nine (9) finalists. That about covers it. Looking forward to the next one!

As the Summer (for most of us) comes to a close and we seep in to Fall, we take a look back at the Mercedes Miami Swim Fashion Week back in July. Noticeable neon Indian inspired Tribal Trends are seeping in to the 2012 RTW ("Ready To Wear") collections.

"From Fierce animal prints to safari suiting, spring is swinging to a tribal beat..." - Vogue.com

 

COLOURlovers themselves seem to be trending amongst pattern and palette designs. Take a look for yourself...

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Mara Hoffman

Mara Hoffman collaged complex patterns and playful color combinations, using cooler hues like ostrich feather green and sky blue as a base to feature rays of fluorescent warmer oranges, yellows, and pinks. Showing a flair for Egyptian patterns and colors, Hoffman cites her husband Javier Piñón’s last collection O Babalon as an influence for her tribal trend.

Dinelia Brazil & Luli Fama

Dinelia Brazil and Luli Fama chanelled their respective Brazilian and Cuban heritages, using similar heavily saturated palettes to create a modern spin on tribal lineated patterns.

Red Carter

Heavily saturated eye-popping brights are set to bleed into the next season, after being mastered this spring by fashion veterans from Haider Ackermann to Jill Sander, and Rachel Roy.  Red Carter used blocks of electric blue, lime green and flaming coral to create strong futuristic swimwear bound to turn heads.

Aqua Di Lara

On the other end of the color saturation spectrum, soft watercolors and bleeding patterns created a rainbow connection. Aqua Di Lara stayed true to its feminine style by evoking galaxy gazing, with midnight blues as a backdrop for whirls of soft pinks, mellow yellows and dewy greens.

Softer pastel prints were also channeled by White Sands Australia in Australian bushland inspired colors of soft olive, sweet peach and pale wattle yellow.  L*Space, Caffe Swimwear and A.Che also proved that pretty pops of posies on a light canvas are eternally classic.

Regardless of your penchant for neon or pastels, next Summer is set to sizzle with these colorful new trends.

All photos courtesy of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Swim

A few months ago, we released ColorSchemer Touch, the official COLOURlovers iPhone app, on the Apple App Store. We spent a lot of time making it super-simple to create palettes, sync creations with your COLOURlovers account, and take the incredible COLOURlovers community with you wherever you go. And thousands of downloads later, we've been blown away by the positive response we've received from everyone who's used it so far.

But that's still not enough! We want everyone - even people that have never visited COLOURlovers before - to see how easy it is to share their colorful ideas and inspirations from a coffee shop, a car, or even a hiking trail in the middle of nature.

That's why starting today, the ColorSchemer iPhone app is now FREE in the App Store!

So what are you waiting for? Download it today to see why thousands of other COLOURlovers think it's the best way to browse, comment, Love, Fave and interact with the COLOURlovers community at home and on the go.

(And we haven't forgot about you Android users. We're talking with and looking for a great developer to port the app over. If you know somebody we should be talking to, let us know.)

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Getting Started: Create a Palette in a Snap!

One of my favorite features is the PhotoSchemer tool within the ColorSchemer App. Take a picture (or use one from your image library) and start picking colors for a palette. Super fast!

Betabrand, an online-only clothing company that produces limited-edition batches of clothing and accessories, recently paired up with COLOURlovers in the contest, Color-A-Plaid Shirt Contest by Betabrand + COLOURlovers. The contest turned out to be a huge success with over 5,000 entries!

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To enter the contest, COLOURlovers simply had to color a pre-picked plaid pattern - Betabrand2, which had been created by one of our very own Lovers, sec9586. After coloring the pattern it produced a plaid shirt mockup of the finished product.

VOTE HERE AT BETABRAND

The contest is closed and nine finalists were chosen by the Betabrand design team. Voting on these nine selections will be open until NOON (12pm PST) Monday, August 22, 2011.

The Finalists

Betabrand chose the finalists not by the amount of LOVES each pattern/palette got. Simply because this would have been unfair. COLOURlovers had added the ability to LOVE the designs and share them for the fun of the contest.

"Our design team narrowed it down to 9 finalists not based on the number of loves on Colourlovers - because patterns that were created at the beginning of the contest would have an unfair advantage to those created toward the end. As for not picking a winner, but rather narrowing it down to 9, we decided to do that because we were so thrilled with the volume and quality of submissions that we wanted to keep the love going!" - Jared @ Betabrand

The nine finalists in no particular order...

Hipster Plaid by bcrider

cloud nine by martino

*colour hunter* by Sunny21327

Weddings are expensive.  How many times have you heard you ask yourself "HOW much is/are...(insert photography, flowers, invites, food, etc)...going to cost?!"  So it is no wonder the most popular question I get asked is, "How do I save money on my wedding flowers and still have a beautiful event?" My two favorite answers to that question are, use high impact colors and interesting details.

Compare this lovely bouquet I designed a couple of years ago in shades of white:

 Photo by Sarah Maren

To this bouquet I designed for a Fall wedding with high impact oranges and reds:

Photo by Kight Photographers

Both bouquets are gorgeous, to be sure.  But which bouquet leaves a lasting impression?  Which bouquet would make you stop and take a second look?

Designing promotional materials for print as a small business or freelancer can be daunting; but shouldn't be. With business cards, post cards, fliers and such - your canvas is small so keep it simple, direct and most of all - attention grabbing!

Apple has taken the clean white look (which has been copied over and over), your bank has taken the look using stock photos of "happy customers", your competitor is using "cute" clipart on their fliers... so what are you going to do to stand out? When your postcard turns up in the mail, what will keep your recipients attention?

source

Pop it with Pop Color.

Without getting in to too much detail of Pop Culture itself, I'm going to focus on color (of course). If you've learned anything from the color use of Pop Culture, it should be,"LOOK AT ME!!!"

Do not mistake Pop Color for simply tossing bright colors down to grab attention. Using Flourecents or Astrobrights will not cut it. Pop Color is a method that almost resists the rules of combination itself, but it works!

For example, Andy Warhol's famous Marilyn Monroe piece very marvelously displays a combination of colors that almost defy how colors should be used together - but it obviously grabbed attention.

Andy Warhol - Marilyn Monroe

So Let's Pop Your Print!

Keep the color palette minimal, bright and lusty or muted but defiant. It doesn't always have to be screaming with color, but make smart design choices.

When it comes to your marketing arsenal as a businessperson, one of the greatest workhorses you have is your business card. From prospects to customers, your business card tells the world who you are and what you do. The question is: is it telling the story you want it to?

What Makes an Effective Business Card

What makes an effective business card has changed over time. In 2000, American Psycho taught us that clean, white or eggshell cards were the creme de la creme of business status symbols.

These days, people are turning to color as a way to stand out and be more memorable to contacts.

So, how do you choose when and where to use color or what color to use, for that matter?