COLOURlovers

[|www.colourlovers.com]

COLOURlovers™ is a resource that monitors and influences color trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or even in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews. The COLOURlovers™ community is regularly updated with information and examples of the way colors are used in the real world -- along with news articles on color trends and interviews with top creative professionals. Here everyone who is interested in the practical applications of color can find an index of color trends as they are happening. Together, they create a color trend index for the entire world provided by users of color worldwide. It's a tool designers and artists of all kinds use to work with colors in new ways and quickly find out what's hot and what's not. This site allows anyone to find their inspiration for color by searching, sorting and filtering through keywords to a color scheme that interests them or to create and share your own [|1].
 * Description**

The site is a good example of disseminating visual culture because of the many features it offers for community involvement. It is not only a resource, cataloging colours and colour palettes, but also allows users to create their own schemes using swatches uploaded by other users or themselves and then present them to the community for feedback. The rating system which ranks these schemes provides a means of tracking the more popular options not only globally, but also in terms of specific criteria, serving users in a very practical manner even providing visual statistics of usage. Users are able to search through resources like magazine covers or web sites based on combinations of specific colour values. It's blog segement which can be subscribed to using RSS, provides another means for the community to comment and cross pollenate, presenting schemes that are reflective of the month or time of year as well as a historical background of the cultural backgrounds of these colours. The inclusion of a group and job portal allows for users with similar interests to congregate and share ideas concerning colour while also searching for employment. The level of customized content here, allows for easy adaption to the needs of specific user groups regardless of their colour inclinations.
 * Insight**

The sites creator's were obviously tring to create an all encompassing site focused on colour in both the aesthetic and cultural sense. It's easy to navigate and flow through the site. Its grey heavy aesthetic ensures that the focus remains on the colours being presented and discusssed and not on the site itself. It's transparency in this regard is useful because it makes the experience easier to manage, and reinforces the sites general purpose. To further that point, all of the sites major features are given prominant space on the homepage. Thus making them more accessible and increasing the ease of user invlovement. Ease is not really an issue as all major protions of the site are clearly labelled and follow establish conventions, as evident in their forums or profile manager.


 * Home Page**

1. http://www.colourlovers.com/about
 * References**