Sorry for another late post, especially right after resolution to keep it going more properly. I had my best friend staying over for a week though so it did change my schedule a lot 🙂
Color inspirations by Darius A. Monsef the IV is a book created by colourlovers.com in collaboration with HOW Books. It is very interesting collection of various palettes created by users of this site presenting them in very easy to browse form.
The book is opening with introduction into color theory presenting most important rules to keep in mind and explains how to use tools that colourlovers.com provides on their site for creating palettes. Color theory here is very condensed and limited to most important rules but it does what it wants well – creates good basis for future exploration of this topic for people who would like to learn more about it. It gives good foundations for anyone who just wants to get the basics though. Short description of tools you can use to create palettes on site is really very nice for someone not familiar with that system but willing to learn it and start their own adventure with palette creating.
After the introduction into color theory book provides us with long chapter divided by colors. Each color category is separated into 2-paged palette sections – monochromatic, analogous, triadic, split-complementary, complementary and other. Each palette is followed by palette’s name, name of the user of colourlovers.com site who created it and CMYK, RGB and HEX information about all colors included into palette. To makes things even easier to use, there is CD included that carries all palettes that are shown in the book in digital versions – in ASE, Expression, GIMP and HTML formats. All that is followed by Read me file that includes all information about files you need for proper usage of them.
After palette chapter comes chapter called Color In Nature which features palettes created on basis of nature’s photos – from landscapes to animals. Palettes included in this section are followed by same information as palettes in Color Palettes chapter and also are included on the CD. Last section of the book is Index of URLs of palette creators. All palettes can be tracked here and found on the colourlovers.com website.
In my opinion book is beautifully designed, easy to read and very inspirational. The color combinations presented there aren’t always the most obvious ones which makes them more unique and outstanding to use. I also admire the fact that CD is included, providing users with any info that is required and making use of external palettes extremely easy.
The other thing I like is the way CD is mounted into the cover. It is set inside the cardboard and covered with plastic cover that prevents CD from getting damaged or falling out. Personally I keep all my CDs in separate binder but this is a very nice touch.
The only thing that bothers me with that book is its’ binding. I think that spiral bound books are easy to use but because of being bound by shorter side of pages the book seems bit wobbly and I am often scared to use it afraid it would simply break. It does please me esthetically though so I cannot complain about it too much. Be aware though this is a book to be rather used on desktop in calm environment, not really on-the-go solution.
In general I think it is a great addition to my design book collection and I really like to look through it. It sometimes gives me inspirational kick that I need from time to time and it is great source of color combinations in case of any struggle on that area.
The truth is that you can get those palettes directly from site but this book is a great catalogue of those and makes browsing palettes easier. Since book was released in 2011, the collection of palettes on site definitely grew greatly but colors do not age, do they? 🙂
The book may seem useless but I still consider it a great tool and source of inspiration. It is not a book I would call must-have, but it is worth having.
To have a closer look on the book please visit colourlovers.com post about it HERE.
The book can be bought on Amazon or on HOW books website.
I hope you did enjoy that post 🙂 I plan to review some other books from my collection so please stay tuned!
madness designed. 