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

Patterns

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

The book

Behind the Scenes

All Images © Andrew Zuckerman

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

duncan

San Francisco

b00nj

sftaxi

Tokyo

twicepix

busy.pochi

busy.pochi

busy.pochi

Buenos Aires

aqualung1981

China

dcmaster

Bangkok

seanbonner

Mexico

bdebaca

AFP PHOTO/Jose Castanares

Toronto

hanginggman

Header image by tnarik

"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.

Each chapter investigates a specific color principle, with the discussion supported by a related exercise, a “studio tool” assignment or demonstration, a polymer clay jewelry project, and a profile of a prominent polymer clay artist. See The Topic List.

Book Jacket by Rachel Wells

Rachel Wells

A follow on from 'Culture London' project, I produced a book cover for the 'Heroes' book. I wanted to keep the idea relatively simple and based it on the book being produced by four different teams; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. The cover is also designed to suggest the idea of a collaboration and that the four chapters work together to form one common theme, 'Heroes', represented on the cover by the letter H.

Photography

The Underwater World by Wayne Levin

Portfolio

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

More Posters

Source: chicago-l.org

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!

Thanks to tvr for the suggestion.

Lucha libre (Spanish for "free wrestling" or free fighting) is a term used in Mexico, and other Spanish-speaking countries referring to a form of professional wrestling involving varied techniques and moves.

Mexican wrestling is characterized by rapid sequences of holds and moves, as well as 'high-flying moves', some of which have been adopted in the United States, and colorful masks. Lucha libre performers are known as luchadores (singular luchador).

Style

Luchadores are traditionally more agile and perform more aerial maneuvers than professional wrestlers in the U.S. who, more often, rely on power moves and strikes to subdue their opponents. The difference in styles is due to the independent evolution of the sport in Mexico beginning in the 1930s and the fact that luchadores in the cruiserweight division (peso semicompleto) are often the most popular wrestlers in Mexican lucha libre. Luchadores execute high flying moves characteristic of lucha libre by utilizing the wrestling ring's ropes to catapult themselves towards their opponents, using intricate combinations in rapid-fire succession, and applying complex submission holds.

Name El Santo Nicknames El Enmascarado de Plata (The man of the silver mask), El Profe (The Professor) Signature Moves La de a Caballo (camel clutch), Tope de Cristo (flying somersault headbutt), Plancha, Running Tope Suicida

Masks

Masks (mascaras) have been used dating back to the beginnings of lucha libre in the early part of the 20th century and have a historical significance to Mexico in general dating to the days of the Aztecs. Early masks were very simple with basic colors to distinguish the wrestler. In modern lucha libre, masks are colorfully designed to evoke the images of animals, gods, ancient heroes, and other archetypes, whose identity the luchador takes on during a performance. Virtually all wrestlers in Mexico will start their careers wearing masks, but over the span of their careers a large number of them will be unmasked. Sometimes, a wrestler slated for retirement will be unmasked in his final bout or at the beginning of a final tour, signifying loss of identity as that character. Sometimes, losing the mask signifies the end of a gimmick with the wrestler moving on to a new gimmick and mask. The mask is considered "sacred" to a degree, so much so that fully removing an opponent's mask during a match is grounds for disqualification.

More recently, the masks that luchadores wear have become iconic symbols of Mexican culture. Contemporary artists like Francisco Delgado and Xavier Garza incorporate wrestler masks in their paintings.

Name Blue Demon Nicknames El Profe (The Professor), El Manotas (The man with the big hands), El Profe Manotas, El Demonio Azul (The Blue Demon) Signature Moves El Pulpo

Championships

Luchadores, like their foreign counterparts, seek to obtain a campeonato ("championship") through winning key wrestling matches. Since many feuds and shows are built around luchas de apuestas ("matches with wagers"), title matches play a less prominent role in Mexico than in the U.S. Titles can be defended as few as one time per year and wrestlers usually only wear their belts during big events and title defenses.

Lucha libre is currently experiencing a boom in popularity due to the emergence of a new generation of stars, most notably, a masked wrestler named Místico, whose high-flying style and technique is attracting record crowds in Mexico.

Luchadores

Name La Máscara (The Mask) Nicknames none Signature Moves Campana, Spinning Armdrag, ringpost plancha

Name Love Machine Nicknames El Gringo Loco Signature Moves Frog Splash, Tombstone, Belly-to-belly Suplex, Dropkick to the face

Name Felino (Feline) Nicknames El luchador más rápido (The fastest luchador), El Gato Volador (The Flying Cat), Felino Centella (spark) Signature Moves La Casita, Splash Mountain, Superbomb, Inverted Figure Four Leglock, Vuelo Felino (Somersault plancha off second rope inside the ring), Top-Rope Headscissors, Moonsault Bodyblock

Name Dragon Rojo Jr. Nicknames none Signature Moves Flying Legdrop (opponent suspended in ropes), Flying Legdrop,Powerbomb, Diamante Kick aka Patadas Laguneras

Name Averno (Hell) Nicknames none Signature Moves Double Underhook Sitout Facebuster, no hands Tope con Giro, top rope headbutt

Name Mil Máscaras Nicknames The Man of 1,000 masks, Mr. Personalidad (Mr. Personality) Signature Moves Plancha, Plancha suicida, Flying double chest chop, Bearhug

Name Místico (Mystical) NIcknames El Principe De Plata y Oro (The Prince of Silver and Gold), El Seminarista de los Ojos Blancos. Signature Moves La Mistica, Huracarrana, 619, Plancha suicida into armdrag, Asai Moonsault into opponent's feet, Ringpost armdrag

Lucha Libre Inspired Palettes from the CL Library

Sources: Wikipedia & luchawiki.org