I always think it is quiet amazing how many varieties of great colors and color combinations there are to view and talk about. Today is about black and gold. Both bold, sexy and rich, when combined it is just that much more sweeter. I have to say, I am rather fond of the ottoman and gun throw pillows. Love them!

pillow, chandelier shade, clock, bowl,  table, soap dispenser, vase, flatware

Spice inspired palettes and patterns from the COLOURlovers' Group Spices.

Colors & Palettes about Cinnamon, Pepper, Soy Sauce, Wasabi, Curry, Tamarind, Juniper, Anise, Lavender, Laurel, Nutmeg, Mint, Vanilla, ... here we go!

Palettes

We have more than 600k seamless background patterns and more than 1 million color palettes... Why aren't more sites using our API to give their users beautiful options for their profiles? Sounds like a no-brainer right? Well, I met Evan Williams (@ev) from twitter a few weekends ago and I presented this idea to him. He was open to it, but Twitter was super busy working on other features... BUT if we built it he'd definitely check it out. Well, Ev... Here she is!

Introducing... Themeleon for Twitter. Custom Themes by COLOURlovers

A Beautiful Twitter Profile in 3 Simple Steps:

1.) Login to Twitter

2.) Choose your background (pattern or photo) and your colors

3.) Save your settings. & Share your work

Browse Your COLOURlovers Creations & Faves

Want to create your theme using your own palettes and patterns from COLOURlovers?

Login and browse your New & Top patterns or palettes as well as your Favorite New & Top.

Use the Tools Luke!

-Apply. Although the wording is a bit cumbersome. You can apply the colors you have in your pattern to your color settings below & you can also apply colors you have in your settings below to a pattern template. *Click each of the buttons, it'll be obvious what they do... and then help us improve the wording on them :)*

-Shuffle. Click the button to give you some inspiration by mixing up the order of the colors in your settings area.

-Undo. Oops. Didn't mean to click there? Not sure what you were thinking with that last color choice? No worries, just click the undo button. (You can click it more than once to correct a spree of mis-clicking.)

-Drag & Drop. Click and drag any of the 5 color squares in your pattern preview or down in your color settings to change their order.

*New* DHTML Color Picker

While building themeleon we decided it was time to give our DHTML color picker a refresh. We not only updated the aesthetic we made it a bit bigger so the (S) Saturation and (V) Brightness sliders can fully display all 255 steps. We'll soon be releasing the code for this picker under the same terms as our previous picker to be freely used in any of your projects. (We did remove CMYK from this version for now as the conversions weren't working perfectly. It will find its way back in when we have it locked down.)

Use Themeleon on Your Site

Have a site that lets users customize their profile or create themes? Want to plug into the COLOURlovers API and use themeleon on your site? Let's talk! Hit me up @dariusmonsef or us @COLOURlovers... or just use our contact form ;)

Theme Leon? What does that mean?
No, no... Thee-mee-lee-uhn. Like Chameleon. Get it? As in a chameleon can change its colors... and you can change your theme colors... We're so proud of ourselves on this one. We didn't even go with our old trusty and take the first few lettes to make up a name... COlor PAlette SOftware (COPASO) & PHoto COlor PAlettes (PHOTOCOPA).

The Astonishing vividness of Andrew Zuckerman's photographs is a treat for the senses. In his latest book, Bird, Andrew pulls the birds from their natural setting and places them in front of a stark white backdrop creating the most wonderful contrast that allows us to appreciate these colorful creatures in a new light.

Find out more about the book at birdbook.com

The Birds

From the classic Yellow cabs of New York City and Black cabs of London to the new Pink cabs in Mexico, it seems there's a different color cab for every city.

While many taxis colors are chosen to be easily recognizable to those who need a ride, sometimes cabs are color coded depending on the company they run under, like in Chicago which has no official cab color.

Sometimes cab colors can be protected under law, as in this case from Boston.

In Mexico, they went from Yellow to Green & White to White with a Bright Red stripe around them, and as of late, Burgundy Red and Gold. There is even a 'women only' Pink cab company.

In Shanghai only companies with more than a 1000 cabs can choose their own color leaving the city with a select group of 8 colors.

Taxi Colors From Around the World

New York City

kyradk

London

kenjonbro

"His recent paintings readily recall aerial landscapes. The meticulously applied layers of color reflect a deep appreciation for the way the land carries a memory of its previous self."

"Patchwork like spaces of unequal area are simplified and assembled to heighten the relevance of value, line and most importantly color."

Emmett Kerrigan works and lives in Chicago, IL.

Public Installation

112 Color Steps in Wuppertal, Germany

notcot

Acrylic paint on 112 steps. Each color expresses a different emotion.

Books

Polymer Clay Color Inspirations: Techniques and Jewelry Projects for Creating Successful Palettes

Amazon

Lindly Haunani and Maggie Maggio are renowned for their courses and workshops on color as well as for their outstanding polymer clay work. In this book, they offer instruction and inspiration that focuses on polymer clay as a learning tool that readers can use to explore their own color instincts and preferences and develop their own palettes.

Have you been noticing an awful lot of brown and green sprouting up in home design for some time now? It seems to be due to its association with the actual "being green" movement, if you will. This does seem to make absolute sense. If you do think about it, we do tend to correlate the two said colors with nature and right-fully so. In the image you will see brown and green items that I found to be interesting. Enjoy!

Placemat, Box, Art, Jars, Knob, Buddha, Chair

During the 1920s, the Chicago Rapid Transit Company commissioned the city's finest graphic artists to produce advertising posters that encouraged Chicagoans to use rapid transit for more than commuting to work. The images produced beckoned Chicagoans to the city's parks, museums and other urban spots, as well as to more bucolic destinations beyond the city limits. Curiously, almost none of the posters actually featured the "L"TM itself, only scenic views of the destinations. Although there seem to be no records of precisely how many posters were produced, what they advertised, and what images they consisted of, researchers think approximately 160 posters were produced for the Insull lines between 1921 and 1929. - chicago-l.org

Please jump over to chicago-l.org to view the full collection. Thanks to Sam Rosen for the suggestion.

Inspiration

Palettes from the COLOURlovers' group Keywords.

Palettes Created by Keyword Searches

"Many people here make palettes by doing a word search. It's kind of fun because once you find the colours you have to find a way to put them together."

The colours are called: Work, working for a cheque, too much work, im working now, and day at work

Wanna make one? Go to the Colors tab, choose Search, type in the keyword of your choice, and make your masterpiece. :)

Already made one? Post it here, add it to our palettes!