Here’s a roundup of the most colorful art, products, websites and such that I’ve come across in the last week.

Interior

'Clouds' for Kvadrat by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

kvadratclouds.com; bouroullec.com

"'Clouds' is a colorful concept that evolves as you add elements to it, producing a three-dimensional effect, coating architecture in a fluid yet chaotic way."

A nice write up about the latest wallpaper trends and tips on how to best incorporate them into your home or office by House to Home.

Archive designs

Wallpapers taken from the archives are historic but far from old-fashioned. Follow our tips to make a traditional archive-print wallpaper work beautifully in your home.

• You don’t have to live in an old house for these wallpapers to work, but, for best effect, choose a design that suits the scale of your home. For example, the small florals typical of the 1930s can look lost in a high-ceilinged room, while heavily patterned Victorian prints can overwhelm a small or low-ceilinged space.

• To make a beautiful wallcovering the focus of the room, pick out key colours from the design and repeat them in plain fabrics and painted woodwork.

• To mix in other prints without outshining the wallpaper, stick to a limited colour palette. Alternatively, choose another print from the same collection – they’re grouped to co-ordinate, so the hard work’s been done for you.

• If you like an eclectic look, you can team an archive wallpaper with modern furniture, but echo the design – for example, a pattern with gentle curves will look better with furniture in curved shapes.

• If you want to find a paint that matches the tones used in an archive wallpaper, look at heritage and period paint collections.

Geometrics

Love geometric wallpaper? Use it to create a fabulous look with these simple rules.

While video games are often a great source for a colorful experience, few celebrate color as specifically as the recent THQ offering de Blob. I first saw this game in 2007 at an event called the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Sandwiched in the back half of an area called the Independent Games Festival, I discovered that the game had been developed by a group of students from the Netherlands and was about repainting a drab city with color. de Blob is the game's mushy little hero, who bravely takes on the task.

The idea is innovative, but the execution was another thing altogether: I played the game using a trackball to roll De Blob around, and it really stuck with me how easy it was to control, but also what a pleasure it was to play. By rolling through paintbuckets, de Blob would gain a new color, which he then spread to the drab buildings around him by rolling past and bouncing all over them. I laughed out loud a few times while playing. Not only was the game fun, but it seemed to truly celebrate color and communicated a unspoken emphasis on its importance in our daily lives.

It's no surprise that this clever little game didn't remain under the radar for long. THQ got wind of the student project and voiced how impressed they were with it. Soon enough, THQ had acquired the rights and got to developing a new version of the title for multiple gaming consoles. A company called Blue Tongue Entertainment took over development of the version for the popular Nintendo Wii, while another called Helixe worked on developing a version for Nintendo's handheld gaming system, the DS.

In the Wii release, you get to learn more about the story surrounding de Blob and why his painting skills are so important: the city of Chroma has been overthrown by the evil I.N.K.T. Corporation, and all the surroundings have lost their color and turned gray. To right the wrongs that I.N.K.T. has wrought, de Blob must find paint and bring life back to the city again. Beautiful, energetic music has been added to all the levels, and beautifully complements your journey as you roll about reviving your surroundings. Players are awarded higher scores based on how many colors they use to paint city blocks and structures, encouraging creativity.

Here are the current color, logo and uniform designs of all 32 National Football League Teams. Many of the same team colors are used throughout this classic American sports league...

NFL Color Count:

AFC

-EAST-

Buffalo Bills

Team Colors: Dark Navy, Scarlet Red, Royal Blue, White, Nickel
Mascot: Billy Buffalo
Owner: Ralph Wilson
Head Coach Dick Jauron
Conference Championships: (4) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993
League Chanmpionships: (2) 1964, 1965

Miami Dolphins

Team Colors: Aqua, Coral, Navy Blue, White
Mascot: T. D.
Owner: H. Wayne Huizenga (50%) and Stephen M. Ross (50%)
Head Coach: Tony Sparano
Conference Championships: (5) 1971, 1972, 1973, 1982, 1984
League Championships: (2) 1972 (VII), 1973 (VIII)

New England Patriots

Team Colors: Nautical Blue, Red, New Century
Mascot: Pat Patriot
Owner: Robert Kraft
Head Coach: Bill Belichick
Conference Championships: (6) 1985, 1996, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2007
League Championships: (3) 2001 (XXXVI), 2003 (XXXVIII), 2004 (XXXIX)

New York Jets

Team Colors: Hunter Green, White
Mascot: named after their relocation close to LaGuardia Airport where you could hear jets roaring overhead.
Owner: Woody Johnson
Head Coach: Eric Mangini
Conference Championships: (0)
League Championships: (1) 1968 (III)

Aqua, cyan, aquamarine, blue-green, cyan blue, baby blue, teal, turquoise, and so on and so forth.

Some interesting facts about Aqua (Cyan):

Cyan colored tiles are often used to pave swimming pools to make the water within them seem more inviting to swim in, by making the cyan color of their water seem more intensely colored. Water in swimming pool is colored a bright tint of cyan anyway because chlorine bleach, which is cyan, is added to water in swimming pools for disinfection.

The planet Uranus is cyan because of the abundance of methane in its atmosphere.

Cyanosis is an abnormal blueness of the skin, usually a sign of poor oxygen intake. IE- the patient is "cyanotic"

Patterns

Often when we think of commercial design work, we imagine 3 color logos and simple illustrations... but not all commercial work is so plain. Here are 20 commercial designers who create stunningly colorful work.

Matthew Curry | Imagefed

imagefed.com

Over the years of the modern Olympic era we have witnessed design take a forefront in the planning and execution of the event. It has seemingly gone from a casual, low key sporting event, with each venue taking their turn hosting, into a full scale media orgy of Superbowl proportions.

Cities have good reason to want to hold one of the the world's greatest sporting events, with the potential economy boost, infrastructure developments and revitalized international attention, but for many cities hosting the Olympic games has been not always been a great success -- in 1984 Los Angeles was the only city to make a bid for the games due to the massive cost overruns during the Montreal Games.

With the enormous costs that cities face to hold the games, more energy, and money, is being focused on branding in hopes at creating a memorable and rewarding event. Host countries now reach out to the best designers, architects, and artist, to create a spectacle the world will never forget, and the one symbol that will be plastered on the streets, merchandise, and computer and television screens across the globe: the logo. And while most designs have stuck close to the blue, yellow, black, green and red of the Olympic colors, we have begun to see new colors emerge from the more recent games, including the first logo to come in multiple colors, which will be seen in 2012.

Today were taking look at the Summer Olympic logos from 1896 to 2012 London along with some noteworthy facts from each games and palette inspiration from some of the more colorful posters and logos. For more info about each year of the Olympics, click on the corresponding image.

Olympic Design

The 1896 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the I Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to April 15, 1896. It was the first Olympic Games held in the Modern era. Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the Olympic Games, consequently Athens was perceived to be an appropriate choice to stage the inaugural modern Games. It was unanimously chosen as the host city during a congress organized by Pierre de Coubertin, a French pedagogue and historian, in Paris, on June 23, 1894. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was also established during this congress.

While nature tends to trump humans when it comes to color inspiration, at least in my opinion, when humans put their hands into engineering nature, like in the case of salt evaporation ponds, together, unimaginable colors can be created.

The beautiful colors in these images from Google Earth are created during the process of harvesting salt. The vivid colors, which can range from green to bright red, come from different concentrations of algae.

Salt Evaporation Ponds

Salt evaporation ponds are shallow man-made ponds designed to produce salt from sea water. The seawater is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested. The ponds also provide a productive resting and feeding ground for more than 70 species of waterbirds, including several endangered species. The ponds are commonly separated by levees.

Due to variable algal concentrations, vivid colors, from pale green to bright red, are created in the evaporation ponds. The color indicates the salinity of the ponds. Micro-organisms change their hues as the salinity of the pond increases. In low to mid-salinity ponds, green algae are predominant.

In middle to high salinity ponds, an algae called Dunaliella salina shifts the color to red. Millions of tiny brine shrimp create an orange cast in mid-salinity ponds. Other bacteria such as Stichococcus also contribute tints. These colors are especially interesting to airplane passengers or astronauts passing above due to their somewhat artistic formations of shape and color.

Notable salt ponds include the San Francisco Bay salt ponds in the United States, and the Dead Sea salt ponds in Israel and Jordan and Useless Loop, and Onslow, Western Australia. Abandoned salt pans are a major feature of the southwest coast of Taiwan.

Salt pans are shallow open pans used to evaporate brine for the production of salt. The pans are usually found close to the source of the salt. For example pans used in the solar evaporation of salt from sea water are usually found on the coast, whilst those used to extract salt from solution mined brine will be found near to the brine shaft. In this case extra heat is often provided by lighting fires underneath.

The bikini has been raising blood pressures and making people blush since its modern creation in 1946. It has gone through a few changes over the years in style; different patterns, plummeting waist lines, disappearing amounts of fabric and fluorescent fishing lure-like colors, but like most things in fashion, things tend to come full circle, and designers look for something new by looking at something old for inspiration.

To celebrate these liberating two pieces of fabric, and as a reminder of the fleeting summer days, we're taking a look at the colorful history of the bikini, Styles from then and now, and the most famous (or infamous) bikinis known in pop culture.

The Most Famous Bikinis of All Time

Brigitte Bardot Credited with creating the bikini market in the US with her provocative role in the 1950's film 'And God Created Woman.'

Ursula Andress The most famous bikini scene in the history of cinema, from the 1962 James Bond Classic 'Dr. No.' In the scene Andress ermerges from the water wearing an off-white bikini.

S.I. Swimsuit Issue The first issue was published in 1964 and is credited with legitimizing the bikini. The popularity of the annual magazine, which features supermodels in bikinis in exotic locals, has grown steadily since its first release, peaking in 1989 with the 25th anniversary issue with Kathy Ireland. In 2005 the single issue carried $35 million in advertising.

Raquel Welch “Discover a savage world where the only law is lust!” In One Million Years BC (1966), a strange caveman adventure film, Welch is seen wearing a torn, fur-lined brown leather bikini.

Imagine if an artist could take millions of years to complete a single painting.

Over millions of years the natural process of water penetrating and seeping into stones, bringing with it solutions of iron and magnesium, along with other elements, leaves traces of color and forms within the stone. This, along with cracks created from pressure and channels of water, combine their lines to push up imagery of mountains and trees, creating landscapes of unmeasurable beauty.

Known under a few names, such as: scenic stone, pictorial stones, pietra paesina, marble ruiniforme, lithographic limestone, and stone Florence (there may be others too), these stones were highly prized in early modern Europe and, before that, Asia, because of the beautiful naturally created organic landscapes.

© Bill Atkins

There are three areas in particular that are known (or were known at some point in time) for these types of stones: Florence, Italy; Jasper, Oregon; and Cotham, England.

Hercules Segers

spamula.net

Artists also used these stones as a canvas adding their own hand and transforming the natural lines and shapes of the stone's face with their own paints, like the one on top painted by Dutch painter Hercules Segers, and the other one by Johann König.