When looking for a new background for your Twitter account, or just a color palette for painting your walls, it can be tough for find an appealing palette.  Colors need to complement each other in the right ways and it can be tough to find an expert besides Pantone to help you decide.  That’s where today’s featured community, Colourlovers, absolutely shines.


A community for color lovers
Colourlovers is an excellent alternative to the monopoly on color that Pantone has.  Typically, designers need to pay Pantone big time to get the latest color forecasts.  Most companies actually do this so they can gain access to Pantone’s numbering system for colors.  Companies can then use a standard format so they know which hue they are referring to.  What Colourlovers provides won’t immediately make Pantone irrelevant, but they do offer some great tools for coming up with a color scheme, browsing popular color patterns, and engaging in an enthusiastic community.

Within minutes of signing up, I was able to create a color palette from the standard set of RGB colors, but I wasn’t finished there.  With tools to create patterns from those colors, I was able to create a pretty serviceable background image that tiled nicely.  It’s a shame I went to all that trouble because then I found Themeleon, a simple 3 step process to customize your entire Twitter page.

As I dig deeper in the site I keep discovering more tools that stretch my imagination even further.  Their PHOTOCOPA tool lets you create a color palette from a picture, which is great for when you have source material you are trying to emulate.  Their community is full of people and groups devoted to creating great patterns and sharing them with others.  For example, I found a group dedicated to their love of guitar colors.

Trends is a section focusing solely on what is happening in the world of color right now.  They feature color trends from everything to web design all the way to street fashion.  This is where Colourlovers begins to be a valuable resource to any designer trying to keep ahead of the fashion curve.

It’s impossible to describe an entire community in one blog post, but I’ve already fallen enough in love with Colourlovers that it is my go to source when I’m dealing with color.  Make sure to check it out and share some of your patterns with us!

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