color design

Part of learning about color is understanding it's many facets and cultural meanings. Laura Tofts passionately shares her perspective on color from a southern African point of view, describing Zimbabwe's color symbolism across pattern, natural pigments and minerals. Her goal is to bring global color conversations to Africa and spread its traditions with the world. 

Born 47 years ago in Zimbabwe to British immigrants, Laura grew up in the Capital City Harare and completed her High School education there.  In 1996, after completing Tertiary studies in Linguistics and Tourism, Laura moved to Brighton, Sussex, UK and gained experience in various Restaurants and Hotels before landing a position at the American Express Head Office in the European Corporate Travel Department. 

The Call of Africa was too much, and Laura returned to Zimbabwe in early 2000 and joined Avis Car Hire as The National Sales “Lady” .... Until political events in the country saw the rapid collapse of the tourism industry and a very depressed environment. At that point Laura decided it was time for a change and whilst working as a restaurant manager in a 5-star Restaurant in Harare, studied Accounting by night. Once qualified, Laura took up a role as Bookkeeper in a Paint Shop downtown ... and that’s when the Eureka moment happened, and the passion was ignited. 

The following year Laura opened her first Paint Wholesale Warehouse in the Light Industry Area, where she is still based today... 23 years later! Needless to say, Laura Tofts has extensive experience and deep knowledge about coatings and colour design. She is the only NCS qualified colour trainer in Zimbabwe, training architects, interior designers and anyone with an interest in colour. During the last 13 years, she has extended her skillset by delving deeply into specialist finishes, such as cement, texture, wallpaper, and anything else that adds dimensions to a wall. She has earned Certification from The Institute of Concrete of South Africa, specialising in cement for construction. Laura owns The Showroom (recently re-branded from Artisan), a surface design company that supplies top-quality products and creates unique finishes for residential and commercial projects. The Showroom is Zimbabwe’s main distributor of Medal Paints, Cemcrete, Earthcote, Jaxoleum and Wallpaper Inn, Eijffinger, ORAC, among others. 

Laura’s Instagram Page best summarises it all “Africa forever in my Soul, Colour all around me”. 

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How can you empower yourself with color and bring out the best of yourself? Lisa Maria Pippus explains how she helps her clients in selecting the right color palette to literally shine and portrait what they want to stand for. In this podcast episode you will learn about terms like color DNA, archetypes and personal branding. 

Lisa Maria Pippus, born Canadian, living in Berlin, studied fashion in Toronto and Milan, empowers design and style professionals to speed-read their clients’ aesthetic preferences through the "Aesthetic Compass Inventory". Understanding the four aesthetic direction and their sub-types allows them to add to their bottom line. By quickly understanding the language, color, line and shape choices that make their client's hearts sing. The Aesthetic preferences Compass also empower leaders to 'be fabulously on-brand'. This means to express their truth in a powerfully authentic way. To align their personality strengths to their wardrobe so they are seen, heard and valued. 

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Join us as we chat with Lynne Niehaus, an artist, interior designer, podcaster, color whisperer, and design shaman. We talk about all the things from creating a home design that aligns with how you feel, honoring how your children can contribute to the vibe of your home, using color psychology, following your dreams, and having fun! 

You can connect with Lynne @lynne_niehaus1 or visit her website at https://www.lynneniehaus.com/. Also be sure to check out her podcast, The In Her Eyes Podcast!

Visit Lynne’s website for your FREE copy of her Bedroom Design Planning Guide!

OMG OMG our June retreat (June 2nd - 4th) is going to be EPIC! If you're craving connection AND needing some space to re-find yourself, you are going to want to join us for this MAGICAL weekend in a house on the water. We will have mindset workshops, restorative yoga, guest speakers, amazing food, free time, gifts and tons of FUN! Get the details and grab your spot at https://katiedragos.com/retreat

Let me know what topics you want to hear about, what speakers you are looking forward to hearing from! 

Message me over at Instagram @katiedragos717 or email at katiedragos@gmail.com

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For more information, visit my website at katiedragos.com

This is quite the unusual podcast for me.. as for the first time I am being interviewed myself by Keith Recker who beseeched, almost begged me to let the TCA fans get to know me better by turning the tables and allowing myself to be the interviewee. This fun conversation gives some insights into the mysterious world of color forecasting and its future, how you may identify color for clients and their brand but most importantly, what color can do for you on a personal level once you learn how to work with it. Color is life, color is emotion and above all, it is power. 

Judith was born in 1981 in the countryside of The Netherlands. She moved to the urban environment of The Hague for her studies at the age of 17. At 28, when she moved to Milan, she fulfilled a lifelong dream of living in Italy. She still lives there, a participant in the vibrant unfolding of color and design-thinking in one of the world’s creativity capitols. 

Her initial dive into color came in her first job as Product Planning Specialist at Kawasaki Motors, where she was the only European and the only woman on Kawasaki’s Japan-based design team. Later, she served as Senior Color Designer at Avient ColorWorks, which designs innovative and increasingly sustainable polymer-based colorants to the manufacturing sector and was Creative Director of ColorForward, a global color forecasting guide. These positions allowed her to travel the world to present social and consumer color intelligence to cross-industry professionals, designers and marketers.

Today she is captain of her own ship as founder and color intelligence provider at The Color Authority. She’s also vice president of membership of the Color Marketing Group, where she’s been very active for over fifteen years in positions including president and member of the executive committee.

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Who was I born to be? That is the question we need to ask ourselves, less so, what is my life mission. Mark Wentworth will talk about how we all are born into a particular color and how that sets our natural path. An intriguing conversation about Mark his methodology called PsychoDynamics and how he brings people back to themselves as we all seem to have lost ourselves a little bit in this chaotic world. Why was the pandemic indigo and what is the color of 2023? 

Mark Wentworth has been studying and working with the healing power of colour for 35 years. He is the founder and principal of Colour for Life, and creator of the Colour Psychodynamics® methodology, both offering life-enhancing methods integrating colour therapy with the collective and visionary worlds of depth psychology and expressive arts. He is the author of Add a Little Colour to Your Life which has been translated into 8 languages. Mark lives in the UK as well as travelling around the world sharing and teaching his love of colour. 

As well as being a guest on numerous TV and Radio shows and interviewed by various magazines and newspapers throughout the world, Mark is also a brand ambassador for Valspar Paint UK, and a Visiting Practitioner for SixSenses Spas and Resorts. 

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Bethan talks about her many inspirations deriving from spending time in different countries while travelling. She explains how she lets color speak to her designs and patterns while explaining the design processes of her latest creations. Her love for Mexico strongly comes forward in the conversation and how the Mexican color palette has influenced her work. Bethan has always had an interest in the relation between people and the object and how she can reinforce that relation through time, and of course, color. 

Bethan Laura Wood has run a multidisciplinary studio since 2009 characterised by materials investigation, artisan collaboration and a passion for colour and detail. Residencies and location-based projects have become an important factor in her design process, often working in response to her location, in collaboration with local manufacturers, or reflecting back into her work the visual and material culture particular to that area. Bethan is fascinated by the connections we make with the everyday objects that surround us and, as a collector herself, likes to explore what drives people to hold onto one particular object while discarding another. Bethan explores these relationships and questions how they might become cultural conduits. She is interested in critical approaches to achieving sustainability within mass consumption and the production-driven context of the design industry.

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Patti Carpenter will talk color trends as she travels the world to places that inspire her. Actually, it is not the places that inspire her, it's the indigenous and how they work color in their artisan products from which we all can learn so much. Patti talks about what really keeps her going, her work in artisan development in countries around the world and her desire to bring more diversity to the world of design. From high Fashion to doing what truly matters to her, helping and supporting other creatives globally and bringing back the value of true artisan development. That is Patti. 

Patti is Principal of carpenter + company and an award- winning Designer in globally sourced home décor, accessories, fragrance and gifts, with experience in product design and development, merchandising and color + trend forecasting. As a Micro-Enterprise specialist with U.S. presidential recognition for domestic and international expertise in artisan development, small producer and entrepreneurial training and economic development  she has designed and sourced Private Label collections for Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Crate & Barrel, The Phillips Collection, ABC Carpet and Home, Donna Karan Urban Zen and Ralph Lauren. She has worked in 57 countries. Patti is an expert in Color + Trend research and forecasting and consults with Pantone. She is the Global Trend Ambassador for Maison & Objet, Paris. She is an active board member of SERRV International-one of the founding organizations of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), BADG (Black Artists and Designer Guild), The High School of Fashion Industries and The Bienenstock Furniture Library, as well as the co-founder of the Kaleidoscope Project. Patti is also the recipient of the  Gift For Life Industry Achievement Award for 2021 and the Withit Industry Leadership Award for 2021 for the Kaleidoscope Project.

Thank you for listening! Follow us through our website or social media!

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How can color heal your past traumas? How can you use color to use your full potential and what do your color choices reveal about you? In this episode I will talk to Thelma van der Werff who's life mission is to heal people through color and help them get to their next step in life. In order to prepare for this interview, I had a private session with Thelma of which we will reveal some interesting findings and the first effects her work had on my life so far.  This talk truly reveals the power of color and how it can bring along true change in our lives. 

Thelma created her Colour Comfort Method from her desire to make the psychology of colour part of everyday life. She analyses the colours people commonly wear and use to reveal their hidden talents and potential, while identifying and reprogramming unwanted behaviour, thought patterns and feelings. She also co-created Colournostics, a coaching tool that uses a combination of psychology of colour and NLP.  She has developed an online course about the psychology of colour, and regularly speaks at events, where people are constantly amazed with the accuracy of the information that their colour choices reveal. At the moment she is the President of the International Light Association, a platform for experts, practitioners and manufacturers who use light, colour or sound for health and wellness. 

Born Dutch she now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. 

Thank you for listening! Follow us through our website or social media!

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