Good color design is nuanced!
Have you ever thought twice about sweeping statements like “green represents hope” or “red is a warm colour”? Sadly, many designers and architects haven’t, because their colour education never went beyond the trivial. But how we combine colours and the scale at which we use them does matter.
Alina Schartner, Color expert and forecaster
Yes, good color design is nuanced. And so is good writing.
As in the case of these good ol’ stereotypes about colors (red is warm, green is for hope), we should all stop and think twice when we’re tempted to write that something is simply “interesting” or “great”, or even”the best” or “innovative”.
Or to jot down one or two evergreen terms such as “able to”, “passion”, “unique”, or “strengths”.
These are all dull, empty words that are so overused that they almost lose their meaning. That your brain skips them when it sees them.
Enter: nuances.
While writing, introduce different gradients, from light and soft to hard and loud.
* You can go from a “charming opportunity” to a “striking feature”, up to an “urgent action”.
* You can get rid of grey, useless terms such as “basically” or “totally”, which add no value and no hues to the text.
* You can drop here and there a few ultra-specific, delightful details that add color, such as “This surface is smooth as organic peanut butter” or even “Our chairs look so drop-dead gorgeous that even your pizza delivery guy Kev will ask to sit down at your dinner table and have a slice or two”. 😜
I’m just joking a bit, of course.
But I hope you’ll agree with me that we should never be afraid to somewhat play with words and, above all, with nuances.