The Color Beige
Last week we introduced our newest color collection, The Color Beige. Sand + Mushroom + Pecan are all available in Classic Ribbon, Gossamer Ribbon, and our Scarves. You may remember Sand from our partnership with Artisaire and it now has a permanent home among our warmer neutrals! We wanted to share some of the work that goes into creating new colors and developing a collection.
It all starts with inspiration! As a team, we gather various images related to the color collection we will be developing. These can take the form of Pinterest boards, print outs, and paint swatches. We start with a color inspiration meeting and look through the imagery to determine the direction we will be taking for each color. This meeting is crucial for our dye team, as it is the jumping off point for their dye recipes in the weeks to come. As always, we mix all of our new colors in paint to play with tints, tones, and shades. This also allows us to see the composition of each hue and better translate the colors to dye pigment.
What inspires us? Every color collection has multiple sources of inspiration. We believe that Mother Nature is the greatest colorist, and frequently draw from colors found in natural elements. For The Color Beige we were also greatly influenced by natural tones found in design and architecture, such as traditional adobe houses.
The process of creating a new color collection is by no means an easy task. We start with testing several dye recipes on small panels. These formulas are frequently adjusted as we begin to see results. Once we have several shades ready, we discuss the properties, challenges, and outcome of each recipe. From there, final decisions are made on each color's tone and our dye team begins production of the silk panels for each of our products.
The work doesn't stop once our dye team produces the silk panels in our new colors! Each panel is carefully ripped and frayed to its specific size, rolled, and packaged. All of our scarves are pre-washed, steamed, and packaged in their tubes (complete with a how-to guide and brass scarf slide). Once the products have been created, we carefully photograph them and make sure that each photo matches the newly created colors. Color matching each hue is a challenge, and we spend a significant amount of time making sure the colors in the photos are correct. We know how important having an accurate photo of each color is when planning your next creative endeavor!
We are so happy to share The Color Beige with you! We hope you love the new tones as much as we do. Check out all of the new colors and products on our Limited Edition collection page.
Studio images by: Kim Branagan @kimbranaganphoto @themakerseries
Product images by: Ryan Franklin Chin @ryanfranklintits
Image credits for inspiration image: Rich Stapleton, Rochelle Eagle, Jose Javier Serrano, Rich Sajdak