Do you see what I see?

Q: What colors do you like... ?

A: I like red, with blue and some green, then some pink for accent, oh, but that might be too much, so how about blacks and greys... ya, I really like neutrals... but make it really bright!

I taught color for a couple of years, and I really wish the Munsell system was taught in school with the same priority as multiplication tables! It would make talking about color so much easier. The love of color is so personal and describing it is so subjective. I can remember, as a kid, I used to wonder if what I saw as red was the same thing that everybody else saw as red...

Fast forward now to my jill2day custom orders customers. I am the artist; it is my job to understand color. Customers are the patrons; it is their job to thoroughly love what I make them. So to make sure we are both doing our jobs we need to commmunicate about color preferences. I have developed a process of visually communicating that seems to work. Many of my customers just either see a previously done sweater they like, or they pretty much know what they want, some just leave it up to me (a scarey thought!). But if a customer wants some idea of what I will be using, or just wants to get more involved in the process (okay by me!) I send them "color ways" like the ones shown here.

These do not assure that we are still having the same expectations, because because proportion has so much to do with the final result, but it gets us close!