Colouring Events

I have always loved the power of colour, its ability to change mood and emotion - whether it is in nature (as in a grey day vs the mood of a city on a sunny, blue day, winter or summer) or in fashion (the former hairdresser in me) or in events. With a lifelong fascination for colour, warm and cool, primary, secondary, tertiary, how colours can calm or energize, refine, define and impact. I love how the Colour Institute decides two years ahead of consumers what colours will be available from cars, to paint, to fabric and more; how our chakras are defined by colour; how our retinas work to process it, the differences between RGB and CMYK when developing video / web applications vs print or painting... yes, I am a colour nerd.


I am also definitely an event nerd - learning, teaching and doing events is important to me - I can't imagine doing anything else now. There are so many facets to events - destination, venue, goals, intent, stakeholders, c-level requirements, programming, logistics, transportation, appropriate activities that all have to be in place, but what often is the tipping point - from a proposal perspective for sure - is the "creative components". The first step is always for us to see what the organization who has made the request is all about - what is their brand, their culture - what COLOUR are they? When will it make sense to use their brand colours in creating an event and when do we use colour to create a mood - "Red Hot Canada" or a magical violet and blue "Ice Palace" or a dark and mysterious "Matrix"... or how can colour create transition as in the "Avatar" event that would take the group from a sterile white lab, to a magical amber and green forest with a finale at a fiery dance party (some obvious liberties taken!) - from invitation to entrance, lighting to linen, floral to costuming - putting together each component to make a cohesive whole that makes sense, that has impact and that is memorable - well doing this definitely makes me a #3 - drawing unique lines and selecting colors energetically!

Fantastic event photos by the incomparable Brian Dennehy

It can be as simple as above - "when life gives you lemons", or as complex as your imagination will allow. I am excited about the colour palettes (textures, environments and energies) we will see created in 2011!