Addison Road

Many of us Addison Roadies work in the creative fields. Whether our pursuits are graphic design, filmmaking, or music, quite a few of our loyal readers and contributors pay ‘da billz by making something. Personally, I am a film/video editor and camera operator, and I have a pretty huge handicap when it comes to graphic design…I’m more than 50% colorblind. That doesn’t mean I race through red lights at intersections, (of which the Red/Yellow/Green are arranged in a consistent manner for freaks like me, in case you were wondering) since I have a relatively good grasp of what color I’m looking at. If you pointed at a color, and asked me to identify it, I’m correct about 65% of the time. It’s the more subtle palate that presents the biggest obstacle.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I found Colour Lovers. (Which should not be confused with this site) Colour Lovers is a community-based website that studies and monitors trends in color, from advertising and branding to product design. There are tons of great color palates to view, compare, and contrast. And it doesn’t just stop at colors, either. You can evaluate textures, patterns, and how color palates are used in the real world. Looking for a palate to produce a new website? Want to simply be inspired for your next layout? Check out the site. It’s pretty impressive.

Another color-based site to check out, is Adobe’s new Kuler. Yesterday, TUAW reported on the new Kuler site, and the comments were mostly of the “That’s a rip-off of ColourLovers.com” variety. While Kuler offers some very similar functionality, I really prefer Colour Lovers - it’s community-based, and they offer free downloadable versions of almost every color palate imaginable, in various formats - Photoshop, Illustrator, CS Stylesheets, etc. Some favorites….