Things Design School Does to You: Creative Color Names

A funny thing happened once I started design school almost 4 years ago. Among all the other changes taking place in my life, like moving far away from home, trying my best to deal with rain on a daily basis, and constantly working on floor plans, another notable change took place.

Colors were no longer referred to as just red, yellow, blue or purple. I started picking up on better color descriptions, and blogging certainly had something to do with this, but now I cannot, for the life of me, just call something "orange." It's tangerine or coral. "Purple" has become eggplant, plum, lilac, lavender. "Blue" and "green" are now described as mint, seafoam, turquoise, sky, ocean's mist, and ice. 

*image by Gem Photo for Michaela Noelle Designs; print by SS Print Shop

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I distinctly remember the day I made a conscious decision to start coming up with more creatively titled color names. My professor told me if we pitched this beautiful gray tone to a client in Seattle and actually called it "gray", they would not go for it. She explained that if we simply called it something like slate, charcoal, evening dusk, midnight, silver, platinum, stone...{you get the picture} they might actually go with it. No one wants "gray" on their walls in a city where it's always gray outside. BUT that same person may fall in love with the color and identify with it better if you call it something different. Oh, the psychology that goes into design :)

From blogging, I've learned even more creative ways to name colors and it's sort of fun. Whoever has the pleasure of naming paint colors or nail polish colors...I want to meet you. You are so, so creative. Anyone else want that job?!

Thank you, design school + blogging, for expanding my color vocabulary and causing me to describe colors as fruits, vegetables, flower species, or the way the sky paints itself at sunset. 

Blush, mint, peach, amethyst, parchment, cotton candy, lilac, honeysuckle (coined by Pantone two years ago, and we'll forever see that lovely shade of pink), emerald....

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*images by Gem Photo for Michaela Noelle Designs

Okay, I'm dying to know what are YOUR favorite colors?! Get creative with the names and tell me in the comments :) I'll share my favorites in another post this week.

Have a colorful Monday!
xoxo