OUGD505: Brief 1- Colour

Colour Research

One of the most important elements of my book is colour choice. Because the book is for parents it needs to be positive which therefore indicates it should be colourful- NHS and health publications are often black and white only and can seem quite intense. Autism is a sensitive issue and therefore the colour choice should reflect that too. I also need to ensure that the choices I make are not stereotypically gender specific as the book is for all babies.

http://www.wallfry.com/gender-neutral-color-schemes

One of the first sources I began looking at was Mamas and Papas as this is a store which appeals to young parents. They often use colour palettes which are not the typical baby pink/ baby blue so therefore I created a colour swatch of their pages to take a closer look at  what colours they use. I found that they seem to have a combination of tones of blue/pink but also other colours such as purple, yellow, orange and teal. 

http://www.mamasandpapas.com/cat/catalogue/?cm_re=Permanent-_-ViewCat-_-BrowseOnline#ePublication%201:3

To know what tones of colours to specifically avoid I looked at Next as the stereotypical gender specific colours are what I want to avoid. As I guessed Next show girls and boys in typical pastel shades with blue for boys and pink for girls. This is something which has been used for years and something parents understand with being associated with babies. Therefore in my own design I will use elements of pink and blue as this is what parents already understand but I will also try to incorporate other colours too. 

http://www.next.co.uk/girls/newborn-girls/snuggle-up/1

http://www.next.co.uk/boys/newborn-boys/snuggle-up/1

I had a look at a website of interior decorating too to get an idea of what other colours I could use in my own designs. I found that oranges/greens/yellow tones are often described as "gender neutral". 

http://nursery.about.com/od/Color-Palettes/ss/12-Fresh-Color-Schemes-for-Gender-Neutral-Nurseries.htm#step-heading

Creating my own palette: 

After having a look online and in catalogues of colours associated with babies/children I experimented with a couple of options for colour palettes and finally decided on the bottom one- it incorporates what I want from the palette. Something colourful but not too bright, gender neutral and interesting.