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Each week is not planned nor defined. I observe and then design…

A visual blog by Lucy Holmes

Design is a way of seeing. The handprint is mine; the texture of my hand is my unique "mark," but how the colors came out is random. This reminded me of my early design days—pre Apple Mac—when every part of the design process was "handmade." 

The color wheel is so beautiful and also so clever. At RISD, under Aki Nurosi, we learned about color by painting one square, of say, red paint on a white sheet of paper in gouache and then once dry, opening our eyes fully and allowing that color to fill our vision. After about 30 seconds we would then move our view to a white sheet of paper and see what color appeared as our retina readjusted back to normal. 

Aki taught us to then paint the color we had seen. As the eye readjusts we see the compliment of red: green ( https://www.risd.edu/people/aki-nurosi/). Choosing color is never easy, but this exercise has helped me so much over the years. 

Graphic designers work with type everyday. To the right of the color wheel is a detail of Benesh. It is a dance notation system used to document dance and other types of human movement. I’ve been collecting books about it for a while and love the delicacy of this unique language. 

Above the color wheel is a study of different chair designs, like an early storyboard of a chair animation. The other images were things I saw and loved: the texture, color, positive and negative shapes of a textile, some thread, an installation at the V&A and some gates. Inspiration for a recent design challenge.

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