4th Annual Challenge of Color :: ColourLovers Wordlinks

'I try to apply colors like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.' ~ Joan Miro


I love color. And I love words. Put those two things together and I am a happy camper.

This year is the 4th annual Challenge of Color and if you like color and words, I invite you to join me in a creative game!

Have you heard of Colourlovers.com?

"COLOURlovers is an international creative community that helps people discover their inner designer. We provide people with a wealth of user created & shared color inspiration as well as tools that make the creative process as simple as possible. Whether you’re simply looking for a color palette to kickstart your next project or want to produce a piece of vector art, we have the tools and services to help anybody from go from design inspiration to execution."

There are some great tools here if you love colors, like a color palette creator called COPASO. One of the things I like best is the community aspect. People follow each other, and encourage new color palettes, patterns and ways of using the colors. You can follow individual members called 'lovers.'

A few years ago, I stumbled on a group that was playing a game with the color palettes. This game reminds me of the game show Chain Reaction. Are you familiar with that game?

In this clever game show, two teams compete to complete chains of words after the first and last words of the chain are revealed. They do this by getting one letter at a time.

The WordLink game on ColourLovers is a similar concept.


From the wordlink instructions...

"with wordlink palettes you start with a two-word (or more) colour name. the next colour name has to start with the last word of the colour before it. each colour continues this way to the end. try to make the last word of the last colour the first word of the first colour. this is really hard, though."

Each color created on the site is given a name by it's creator (even you can create colors and name them!). This game is a challenge to make a link of the names (containing two or more words), with the last word in the name phrase matching the first word in the next color name phrase. Be careful! This can be addicting! And sometimes it makes for a surprisingly beautiful palette.

Here is an example that I made in 2011 showing the colors and the names in their linking order:

Colors in this palette, from left to right:

clear focus
focused mountain
mountains majesty
majesty of midnight
midnight angel

After I made the palette I was able to click the button below it to 'toggle widths' just for fun! And from the editing I was able to add this to the wordlinks group.

The WordLink game is progressive, meaning that the next palette starts where the last one left off. I don't really play it like that. I just like to challenge myself to create the wordlinks. And to play with colors. 

There is also a derivative of this game that is called a circular wordlink where the last word in the last color of the palette is the first word in the first color of the palette. That is pretty challenging, but I actually did it the other day!

Here is an example (that I did not make - you can see my circular wordlink palette below) that shows the circular nature of the palette...

Colors in this palette, from left to right:

Beach Balloon

Balloon Ghost

  Ghostly Looks

Looks like a storm

Storms on the Beach

The ColourLovers.com website can be searched by the name of the colors that the community members have created, so the trick to doing this is to pick a word to search by and start with the first color that grabs you. 

So, what do you think? Do you think that you want to play a little color game and be inspired by it?

Here is what I propose for the Challenge of Color...two options...one that is simple and one that is a twist! (You didn't think I would forget the twist, did you?)

Option 1: The Simple Challenge

1. Go to Colourlovers.com and peruse their palettes.
2. Pick one that you like. (This might well be the toughest challenge... to narrow down the choices!)
3. Grab the palette by grabbing the html code in the Share This Palette area, or selecting Get This Palette Image to download a jpg)
   
4. Another method I have found is to use the Windows Snipping Tool.

Option 2: The Twist Challenge

You know I love a twist! It is actually easier than it sounds, once you get the hang of it!

1. Go to Colourlovers.com. 
2. Create an account (important: this will allow you to create and save palettes).
3. Open up two windows (not tabs). 
4. Optional: Have a pen and a pad of paper handy to jot the color names down.
5. In one window, open COPASO (or Basic, like I do because I find COPASO a bit intimidating ;-)
6. In the other window, open Colourlovers.com and Browse>Colors.
7. Click the Search button to find colors by a keyword. Choose any keyword that you like! (Let's use the word 'cinnamon')
8. From the list of colors that comes up, scroll until you find one that you like, making sure that the color name has at least two descriptive words.
9. See that Hex number? That is the secret. Double-click on that number and copy it.
10. Switch over to the first window and paste the Hex number in the box indicated.
11. Just below this color picker, you will see a few fields. In the Description field, type the name of the color and the hex code.
12. Go back to the second window and search on the last word in the color name (for this instance, search for 'sticks'). You can be relaxed about how the term fits, like 'stick' instead of 'sticks.'
13. To add the next color, click on the square you want to put it in to highlight it (a line will be over that square) and repeat steps 10 and 11. 
14. Keep repeating these steps until you fill all five colors in the palette. (Don't forget to write the names of the colors down!)
15. To share the palette on your own blog, see step #3 in Option 1 above.

Here is the palette I created called sweet cinnamon magic

I would suggest practicing. You might actually find it quite addicting!

Participating in the 4th Annual Challenge of Color is as easy as 1-2-3!

1. Regardless of which option you choose (Option 1: Simple or Option 2: Twist), create something (any creative medium is fair game!) inspired by the palette you select or create using the colors in any concentration of your choice. 
2. Blog about your palette and your creation any time during the month. 
3. Add your blog post URL to the InLinkz code available on the reveal date, Monday, December 2nd.

So, are you with me?

The sign up below will only be for me to get a sense of who is playing with me and in a few days I will email you all through this to keep you moving forward on the challenge. 

Join the 4th Annual Challenge of Color

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