Color prediction for Fall/Winter 2006

After recently visiting pantone.com, I feel a little up-to-date with the future trends. Here's what they predicted:

For next winter season, it’s all about mixing and developing interesting contrast. Think differently and use saturated colors as anchors, spicing them up with terrestrial darks, toning them down with muted neutrals and kicking them up with warm and cool contrasts. The key is to experiment with color to create different moods and attitudes.

The past comes alive once again in Europe as two distinctive looks emerge, retro-vintage and the deconstructed styling that is now being borrowed from the 1980’s designers from Belgium and Japan. For women, the idea of femininity is taking on a more realistic look, which now emphasizes pretty fabrics and styling, but not overly frilly or a look reminiscent of the Stepford Wives. For men, it was about remix by using dress-up elements for both the office and lay.

So there you have it.....

Inspired to draw

Although I think I'm fairly creative, I don't consider myself an artist. I heard a podcast clip the other day that mentioned we should relearn some skills we were taught in school to keep our creative juices flowing and challenged. I guess one of those skills for me is drawing. Ten minutes a day, a pad of paper and a pencil will do the trick. I also found this website with instructions on drawing a face. So here I go, my attempt to learn to redraw, starting with a portrait of me.
http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/create/tech_proportion.html

Rules of the Red Rubber Ball

What is your Red Rubber Ball? What inspires you? What is your primary source of joy? What frees your ideas? Rules of the red rubber ball is a great book by Kevin Carroll. Kevin spoke at the HOW Conference two years ago and it was so dynamic, he actually had his red rubber ball there. His job at the time was with Nike. He was the Creative Inspirational Director. He basically helped inspire the designers, shoe makers, and staff by making them play to enhance their creativity, (thats where that one ad came from where the people are playing tag in the city.) Wouldn't we all like a job like that. Play all day!!!!!! or is that what we do????? If not we need to do more of it. We need to unlease our creativity by figuring out what our red rubber ball is.
http://www.katalystconsultancy.com/index.php