Color Trend Secrets You Didn’t Know About: Fall 2013

Posted on August 26, 2013 by ntranter

Fall 2013 Color Trends invokes colors that are rustic, warm but bright and dull all in one. It speaks of some of our favorite shades. The fashion color report for Fall 2013 has been unveiled by Pantone LLC. This vivacious palette gives us a direction to the overview of designers’ use of color in their upcoming collections.

color trends palette suggestions by Graphic Designer Nancy Tranter

Released on the first day of New York Fashion Week, the PANTONE Color Trends Report features the top 10 colors for women’s and men’s fashion for fall 2013, along with designer sketches, quotes, and headshots. The colors come together to create moods that range from sophisticated and structured to lively and vivid. They encapsulate our inherent need for wardrobe variety to reflect emotions that run from thoughtfully introspective to irrepressibly elated.

Multifaceted Emerald continues to sparkle and fascinate, bringing luxury and elegance to the palette, while yellow-toned Linden Green brings a lightness to the deeper shades of fall. Try pairing both with Mykonos Blue, a bold, meditative blue, for a classic and relaxed fall look. Exotic Acai adds mystery to the palette. Pair the elegant shade of purple with Emerald for a regal disposition, or spirited Samba red for an expressive and dramatic look. Koi, a decorative orange with dazzling and shimmering qualities, is a statement color that serves as a pick-me-up for your wardrobe. Vivacious, an unruly and wildly deep fuchsia, adds an ebullient sensuality to the palette.

Press Release
PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald
PANTONE 18-4434 Mykonos Blue
PANTONE 15-0533 Linden Green
PANTONE 19-3628 Acai
PANTONE 19-1662 Samba
PANTONE 17-1452 Koi
PANTONE 18-0312 Deep Lichen Green
PANTONE 19-2045 Vivacious
PANTONE 19-4215 Turbulence
PANTONE 19-1116 Carafe

Graphic Designers Resource for download: ASE Fall 2013 Color Trends Pantone Swatches

I started using ASE (or Adobe Swatch Exchange) swatches working at a Graphics Print House in Chelsea, New York a few years back. I now use ASE swatch libraries for most of my client’s projects.

So what are ASE Swatch Libraries? ASE’s are customized color palettes in which you choose colors and export them to an original file format called ASE from Illustrator for future use in Illustrator, InDesign or Photoshop. Importing the ASE files works very much like importing any other color swatch such as the preset Pantone® colors. Once imported the swatch will give you a dialog box palette window to hold your colors.

Import a ASE Color Swatch into Illustrator:

In an open or existing document click the drop down arrow on your Swatches Palette.
Select “Open Swatch Library>Other Library.
Select the ASE file you would like to import and click open.
A new palette box will appear with your imported colors.

For my other graphic design resources check out my category archives graphic section

Emerald 17-5641 is the Color of the Year for 2013

Posted on January 20, 2013 by ntranter

“Lively. Radiant. Lush… A color of elegance and beauty that enhances our sense of well-being, balance and harmony.” PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald is the Color of the Year for 2013.

Emerald 17-5641 the Color of the Year 2013 Hue Map and Color Details

Pantone announced the choice for color of the year for 2013 to #17-5641 – Emerald Green. The name was first used centuries back, in 1598. This green tone got its name after the emerald gemstone. The color was popular in the 1800s when artists have used it as paint. There are stunning examples of the color in artwork by Van Gogh, Monet, and Cezanne. The problem at that time was that the color contained arsenic which caused many health issues. Luckily today, emerald green is safe to use. Emerald will have a tremendous influence on fashion, beauty, interiors as well as weddings! A color that last peaked in the ’80s, Emerald Green has been making a comeback over the past few years.

“Green is the most abundant hue in nature — the human eye sees more green than any other color in the spectrum,” Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said in a statement “It’s also the color of growth, renewal, and prosperity — no other color conveys regeneration more than green. For centuries, many countries have chosen green to represent healing and unity.”

Below is my personal color breakdown for Emerald. When I’m working on site for a large company I often reference my own blog for quick color choices. The work that the following graphic would help me with is branding, logo choice color, website color scheme, and additional printed collateral.

Hand Dyed Emerald Ribbon and Silver Chain necklace
$35.00

Emerald Cut Swarovski Crystal and Goldtone Earrings
$42.00

Emerald Necklace, Gold Plated Rolo Chain, Czech Glass Cathedral beads, Vermiel Beads $45.00

For my other graphic design resources check out my category archives graphic section

Color of the Year Emerald with Interior Design

PHOTOSHOP TUTORIAL Toning With Duotones, Tritones And Quadtones

Posted on January 24, 2011 by ntranter

This is a great little tutorial from 2011 running adobe photoshop CS6. I love keeping this dated stuff around. Times have changed and the facade has moved along but the math remains the same. The tutorial holds up to the standards of today. Toning With Duotones, Tritones, and Quadtones. This tutorial will teach you how to create duotones, tritones, and quadtones inside Photoshop.

tutorial supplies latest adobe photoshop tools — the latest up tp date graphic design tools

At the end of the photoshop tutorial, you’ll find a link to 5 custom duotone/tritones as a complimentary download. These colors are based upon Pantone Fall fashion report 2011. Your photograph must first be converted to black and white. One of my favorite methods to convert to BW is using ‘calculations’. Open your photograph and click on the image, then calculations.

The calculations dialogue box opens. There are four areas to focus on in the ‘calculations’ dialogue box. The two channels, the blending mode, and opacity settings. I usually combine the ‘red’ and ‘green’ channels. The ‘soft light’ blending mode is great for evenly toned BW. The ‘screen’ blending mode is good for high-key BW. You will need to alter the opacity setting to suit your photograph. Anywhere between 20-100%.

dialog box for calculations to duotone and tritones

When you have the settings the way you want them, click ‘OK’. There are two further steps required to create your grayscale image. After you click ‘Image-Mode-Grayscale,’ a dialogue box will open up, asking if you want to discard color information. Click ‘Ok.’

After clicking on Image-Mode-Duotone, the ‘Duotone’ dialogue box will open.

dialog box for image duotone options mode

The drop-down box at the top left allows you to specify how many colors you will use to tone your image. There are three choices; duotone, tritone, or quadtone. Two of the great advantages of duotones are the ability to ‘load’ existing presets, as well as create your own. There are 5 of my custom duotone/tritones available as a complimentary download. Loading duotone pre-sets is simple. Click ‘load’ in the duotone dialogue box. If you have never used duotones before, Load your custom duotone/tritones into Adobe Photoshop/Presets/Duotones folder. To create & save your own custom duotones, click on one or more colors in the duotone dialogue box.

dialog box for naming your colors found in image duotone options mode

Either the ‘color picker’ or ‘pantone’ color boxes will appear. Choose the color you want and click ‘Ok.’

You can continue this process to change more colors. You can also change the spread of any particular color by clicking in the ‘curve’ area. By playing around with the curve you will control the spread of color.

dialog box for adjusting curves found in image duotone options mode

When finished in the ‘duotone curve’ box, click ‘Ok’. Then click ‘save’ in the duotone box to save your custom duotone into your own pre-sets folder. I finish up my Duotone/Tritone by adding a ‘Curves’ adjustment layer.

photoshop tutorial image adjustments curves

In order to save your file as a JPG, you will need to convert back to RGB color. that’s it, all done.
a download of my duotones can be found in my link section to the left.

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Check out my graphic design portfolio here

Collage with Ideasthesia, Surrealist Automatism and Empathy

Posted on February 25, 2009 by ntranter

A playful combination of empathy and surrealist automatism paintings

collage #4 All images © 2006-2007 Nancy Tranter — collage #4
mixed media on masonite 8″x12″
All images © 2006-2007 Nancy Tranter

Empathy pervades both art-making and the experience of looking at art. Collage is a medium that offers a quick response for the technique of automatism.

Artists can increase empathy in others through their work, eliciting that feeling from people who may be numb from all the terrible things going on in the world, making the viewer more sensitive and vulnerable.

The Center for Building a Culture of Empathy describes empathy in four stages: self-empathy, or mindfulness of what’s going on inside oneself; mirrored empathy, meaning taking on another person’s emotion; imaginative empathy, which involves putting yourself in another person’s shoes; and empathic action, i.e., contributing to the well being of others. All of these aspects can play a role in art-making.

“Artists try to make a gift of what they have felt, What they have felt is the aggregate of what they have seen, and so it includes their own imaginings of what others have thought and felt.”
JESSE BALL

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In the 1800s, philosophers of aesthetics wondered why art pleased people, and they came up with the idea that art activates viewers’ memories and emotions. The concept of ideasthesia used by artists also raises a question: Can we use ideasthesia to formulate a theory of art? The relationship between the two opposing forces of ideasthesia, i.e., the concept and the sensation, can be used to formulate a hypothesis about psychological events that underlie the process of either creating an art piece or appreciating (i.e., consuming) it^[^1]. So, empathy was the mysterious element that connected art and the viewer. In 1873, German aesthetics student Robert Vischer described this projection of emotion as einfühlung, “feeling into,” and, in 1909, British psychologist Edward Titchener translated the word into English as “empathy.” John Dewey’s notion of imagination being indispensable to all learning can be seen to be a “pathway” to empathy. Freud argued that psychoanalysts should embrace empathy to understand their patients.

Surrealist Automatism is a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the making process, allowing the unconscious mind to have great sway. Early 20th-century Dadaists, made some use of this method through chance operations.

“Artists, as a whole, are more empathic than non-artists. They’re more sensitive. They tend to have more fluid, permeable personal boundaries that allow them to connect to people in meaningful, emotional ways. That connection provides fuel for the creative process.”
Joe Behen, PhD, at SAIC

collage #5 All images © 2006-2007 Nancy Tranter — collage #5
mixed media on masonite 12″x18″
All images © 2006-2007 Nancy Tranter

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Collage #6
mixed media
on canvas 28" x 56"
2007
nancy tranter — Collage #6
mixed media
on canvas 28″ x 56″
All images © 2006-2007 Nancy Tranter
nancy tranter

source: Janson’s History of Art, Robert Vischer, Walter Osika, Joe Behen, Jesse Ball, John Dewey, ¹Danko Nikolić