LIKES:
Spring, warm colours, pub walks, espresso martinis, pasta & sunflowers

DISLIKES:
Being in charge of directions, feeling cold & avocados

Claire, what’s inspired you recently?

Colour has always been a source of inspiration for me as a designer. It’s a tool that holds the unique ability to shape emotions, enhance experiences, and create deeper connections between people and brands. The way colour impacts how we feel, whether it inspires, soothes, or excites. It’s this potential to evoke emotion, spark personal memories, and foster relationships that makes colour such an inspiration.

I’m constantly seeking new ways to incorporate colour into my work, on the lookout for bold and meaningful applications. Below are a few recent examples that have caught my eye and inspired me.

We couldn’t talk about colour without mentioning Pantone, and this year’s colour ‘Peach Fuzz’. It’s one of my personal favourites, not just for its soft, warm hue, but for the emotional depth it carries. Peach Fuzz focuses on the emotional connection of a colour, evoking feelings of warmth and togetherness. I think the colour wraps you in a sense of comfort, quite literally making you feel warm and fuzzy inside.

For a bold, immersive experience, colour drenching is a powerful technique. It involves enveloping a space in a single, dominant colour, erasing boundaries and transforming the environment into something truly impactful. A great example of this is the design of Blue Bottle Coffee’s Umeda Chayamachi Café in Osaka, created by the Tokyo-based studio I IN.

In 2022, they designed the café around the brand’s signature blue, using the iconic colour as a focal point. The second floor, wrapped in blue glass, stands out immediately, making the space both serene and visually striking. What I love about this design is that it’s more than just an aesthetic choice, the colour blue is often associated with calmness, tranquillity, and peace, which makes it perfect for a café where customers can relax and recharge. Pairing the visuals with an ambient soundscape makes the experience even more immersive, engaging multiple senses at once.

The work of Luis Barragán never fails to bring me joy. His use of vibrant yellows, pinks, and blues in his architectural designs strikes a perfect balance between traditional Mexican and Spanish influences, while also paying homage to the natural surroundings.

I admire how he seamlessly integrates these bold colours into his work, creating moments that are a continuation of the landscape beyond his designs. He cleverly uses colour to spark an association with nature, for example, his use of blue which is likely to remind us of the blue sky beyond the walls, or the use of pink, inspired from a native flower. His playful use of light and shadow further enhances this and continues to bring the outside in, creating unexpected pockets of surprise that elevate the experience of his spaces.