Houdini Yourself Out of that Box

Sometimes I think designers tie themselves up and lock themselves into a box without even thinking about it.  We get caught up in a color palette or style and breaking free of it doesn't enter our minds or is scary.

Since moving back to California I have been making a concerted effort to work with and surround myself with more color because I did see my safe, classical color choices as a bit of a rut.   And it's interesting when you make a change like that...some people will love it, some will hate it.

Comments of "I love your new style" or "I prefer your old style" or my very favorite "Your usual style" abound....I like to think of myself as unusual/original so if there was ever a word to get me to change direction....that would be it...lol!

Personally I don't see it as a style change, just a color change, at the moment my love of black and white paired with a splash of color is the trend which is just bloody fantastic :)

It allows me to go from this nice safe 'classical' palette

To this 'on trend' version.

It's quite the difference. 

I love what I do...designing and writing tutorials so others can make what I design and part of it is to see what someone else does with my design, typically what it looks like in their color palette. At first I didn't include colors in my tutorials because I thought people would want to make the design in their own colorway but now I do because I always get requests for the actual colors I used.  And I can see I may have to write an addendum to this tutorial to include the neon version.

Of course changing your palette may require some bead shopping (oh drat!)

but surrounding yourself with the scary diminishes it. And working with different palettes makes you grow as a designer.  Bright colors are in fashion right now, trending as they say, so I say...go for it....play, experiment, if you're scared of color this is the perfect time to face your fear.

Do a Houdini from your 'usual' style, I dare ya!