Words by: Erin, Digital Design Media Manager
Pink and blue. Not the most exciting colour combo in the history of well, optical light, except for maybe that time in 2016 when Pantone named Rose Quartz and Serenity dual colours of the year. The world went crazy on this sugary millennial pink and it’s periwinkle partner and it’s probably safe to say we now share a collective, post-sugar fatigue.
But, according to our creative director, Bec, these two shades are not dead to design. Far from it, in fact. Because they’re SELLING in our studio. Bec explains (meet her below, if you haven’t already!):
“We’re not talking baby pink and baby blue mixes here, we’re talking opposing and unexpected mixes.” Read on for our recipes to successful (and sellable) colour combinations. The proof is in the pudding.
LOLLY PINK & GREY BLUE PAIRED WITH: DRAMATIC HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS
For winter, we mixed a rich burgundy ground with a greyed-off denim blue, a touch of lolly pink and a pop of acidic lemon. And what a winning combo! Witchery produced it exactly as we designed it, which is always so flattering that the customer did not feel they needed to change a thing. The design was perfect and ready to go into their collection.”
PERIWINKLE AND LILAC PAIRED WITH: RICH BURGUNDY AND BRIGHT CORAL
“Milea swim purchased a summer take on the palette. Here, we braved the odds and combined a similar shade of burgundy with a hot coral. The coral fades out to a soft pink to add femininity and a commercial touch. Topped off with a periwinkle blue and a mid-toned lilac, it’s not a combination you would necessarily think to put together, but it works.”
PASTEL PINK PAIRED WITH: A STRONG CORNFLOWER BLUE AND CLASHING COLOURS
“Anthropology home purchased this beautifully illustrated Australiana floral for bedlinen. Here we HAVE used baby pink but we’ve upped the blue so it’s a nice strong mid-tone and popped in a surprise with a burnt red and pop of yellow again. Yellow really is our go-to pop of colour. It adds a touch of fun and whimsy.”
BARE IN MIND…
Bec makes it look so easy to find a group of exciting, trend-based colours. Her many years of experience as a creative director have fine-tuned her ‘nose’ for a successful, saleable palette, and in our studio she sniffs out the good ones daily.
We want to teach you guys to do the same (hence, our blog!), and to have a library of Bec-approved colour palettes for your reference. Then you can give your designs the best chance at converting into cash, especially if you’re starting out and haven’t quite attuned your own nose.
So we created a resource for you (which, to be honest, we’re pretty proud of) called, The Freelancer’s Kit. It features eight Colour Scoops (what we call our colour palettes) and 10 Trend Boards (what we call mood boards depicting future fashion movements). Put them together and you have yourself a pretty fail-safe set of textile design direction, straight from our girl.
Here’s what it looks like:
You can read more about The Freelancer’s Kit here.
Now get ready to WOW potential clients with colours that’ll make them sit up and take notice. Not a yawn or 😴 in sight.