Journal / Field Notes
12 essays on how color works in the eye, the brain, the culture, and the year ahead.
Science · 6 min
Light enters, cones translate, the brain interprets. The science behind the simplest sensation we have.
Psychology · 5 min
Why a red wall feels closer than a blue one — and how to use that to direct a viewer's attention.
Psychology · 4 min
Color meaning is not universal. A quick atlas of how hues shift in significance around the world.
Trends · 7 min
Mocha mousse, future dusk, cyber lime, butter yellow — what's pulling away from the pack and why.
Practice · 5 min
Most great brands hold on to two colors. The third one is usually a mistake.
Practice · 4 min
A starting heuristic for distributing colors across a layout — and the cases where you should ignore it.
The WCAG numbers every designer should have memorized, and the easy ways to check them.
Inspiration · 6 min
Red, yellow, blue. A century later they have not aged a day. The reason is structural.
Inspiration · 5 min
Symmetric framing, dusty pinks, and a single jarring accent. The formula behind the most copied visual style of the decade.
Why so many of the great Swiss posters used the same red, and what they were doing with it.
Clashing colors, broken grids, and proudly amateur typography. Why the most boring brands are starting to look weird again.
The eyedropper is just the start. The real skill is knowing which six pixels matter.