[nfbmi-talk] Colors Question

Elizabeth lizmohnke at hotmail.com
Tue Jan 3 03:44:04 UTC 2012


Hello Terri and List,
 
Since I was not born blind, and still have just enough sight to get me into trouble, I am not quite sure how to explain color to someone who was born blind. My organizational skills are also less than desirable, so I am not the one who should be dispensing advice on how to keep your closet organized as well. However, I do have some resources that might be able to help you.
 
First, if I recall correctly, this subject gets brought up on the student email list from time to time, so perhaps you might want to check the archives for some helpful tips. I might still have a few of these emails on my computer at home, and if I find any that I believe would be helpful, I will be sure to pass them along. 
 
In addition, you might want to check out the book Color me beautiful by Carole Jackson which can be downloaded on the BARD website. The description of the book reads as follows:
 
A professional color consultant uses the four seasons of the year to describe women's complexions and their most complimentary colors. She tells how to discover your season and use the colors in your seasonal palette to choose the perfect wardrobe, hair color, makeup, and accessories. Bestseller 1980. 
 
Finally, if you do not feel like reading through an entire book to learn about color as a blind person, perhaps you might want to check out an article in the January 2010 issue of the Braille Monitor entitled “Looking Good without Looking” by Linda Zani. It is a rather long article with lots of advice on finding your personal style as a blind person. Below is what the article says about color.
What styles say about you:
Before you attend your next meeting, go to a job interview, or head out with friends or a date, take a moment to consider what you want the outcome to be. How do you want to be perceived? How do you want to be remembered? Then dress accordingly. My own tip is that, if the thought even enters your mind while you are getting ready that maybe you should wear something else, listen to the thought. Change your outfit.
Control the message
When you feel confident and dressed right for the occasion, you control your message even before you open your mouth to speak. There is much truth in the old saying that you only have one chance to make a good first impression. The sighted make a judgment call on vision alone right from the get-go. The fact that a visually impaired person can nail that first perception with excellent wardrobe choices will be impressive!
Your choice of color can also bolster your image: experts suggest wearing charcoal gray or dark blue for a job interview, red to stand out when taking a leadership role or speaking in public, baby pink to be irresistible on a date, and ivory to project a feeling of serenity when hosting an event. For expert fashion advice read The Look by designer Randolph Duke. 
                                                                                                                    
Finding Your Best Color Palette

Choosing the right colors to wear is as important as finding the right silhouettes for your figure. You can’t have one without the other to look your best. Color choices say a lot about the wearer, and, just like clothing silhouettes and styles, they telegraph to anyone with sight a lot about who you are. Seeing colors creates a different emotional reaction and assumptions in the viewer. It’s important not only to wear the colors that are most flattering but also to wear colors appropriate to the message you want to convey about yourself. Here is a list of colors and the emotions they elicit:
Red—excitement, confidence. Red draws attention to itself and stands out. If red were a scent, it would be a blooming rose or cinnamon. If it were a sound, it would be Pavarotti holding the final note of “Nessun Dorma.”
Yellow—happy, bright. Yellow also draws attention to itself. If yellow were a scent, it would be a lemon. If it were a sound, it would be Mariah Carey singing her highest note. Light yellow is a soft color and would taste like lemon custard.
Blue—serene, fresh, peaceful, spiritual. In its warmer tones, blue can be calming, and invigorating in its cooler tones. If blue were a scent, it would be the ocean. If blue were a sound, it would be rushing water.
Green—friendly, welcoming, relaxing, natural. If green were a scent, it would smell like mint or freshly mown grass. If you stand still in the woods in the summer and listen, that is the sound of green.
Purple—regal, sophisticated. If purple were a scent, it would be fragrant lilac. If purple were a sound, it would be a saxophone.
Orange—happy, welcoming. If orange were a scent, it would smell like an orange or an apricot. Orange feels like sunshine on your skin.
Light pink—gentle, feminine, soft. If light pink were a scent, it would be baby powder. It feels like a feather on your skin. Bright pink or rose is happy and feminine. It would taste like strawberry jam.
White—pure, heavenly, angelic, honest. If white were a scent, it would smell like clean sheets when they come out of the dryer. If white were a sound, it would be a breeze.
Ivory—warm, sophisticated. If ivory were a scent, it would be vanilla. If it were a flavor, it would be vanilla custard or dulce de leche.
Brown—warm, earthy, sophisticated. If brown were a scent or flavor, it would be warm chocolate cake. Brown sounds like James Earle Jones’s voice.
Black—serious, mysterious, intense. If black were a scent, it would be incense. Black feels like the night.
Gray—a sophisticated, elegant neutral. It conveys quiet confidence. Gray feels like a cashmere pillow or a fine mist on your skin.

Determining Which Shades Look Best on You
Each color has both warm and cooler versions or shades. Warm colors have a bit of yellow to them and work best on women with warmer skin tones. Cool colors have a bit of blue in them. To determine which ones look best on you, it is helpful to determine which category you are in, warm or cool.
Step 1: Hold two necklaces, one gold tone and the other silver tone against your face. If you cannot see your image in a mirror well enough to be sure, ask someone you trust which color is more flattering. If you look better in gold, your skin has a warm tone; if silver, your skin has a cool tone.
Step 2: Let’s break it down further. According to a great book called Life in Color by Jesse Garza and Joe Lupo, those with warm coloring can be divided into sun or earth groups; those with cool coloring are divided into moon and star groups. You can determine which of these groups you belong to by holding up two different colors to your face in natural light and choosing (or having someone whose taste and judgment you trust choose) which looks best. These colors correspond to Benjamin Moore paint swatch colors 2020-30 Sparkling Sun and 2169-30 Oriole for those with warm coloring, and 2061-60 Little Boy Blue and 2062-30 Blue Danube for those with cool coloring. You can get paint chips at any Benjamin Moore store to do this exercise. The book, Color Me Beautiful calls these groups winter, spring, summer and fall. Some salespeople may be familiar with those terms, so I have listed them below as well. 
2020-30 Sparkling Sun: Sun/Summer
Suns look best in clear tropical colors with a yellow base such as saffron, coral, and apple green.
2169-30 Oriole: Earth/Fall
Earths look best in rich, deep hues with a yellow base like berry, moss, chocolate, and deep teal.
2061-60 Little Boy Blue: Moon/Spring
Moons look best in light, clear blue-based colors such as strawberry, sky blue, lavender, and pink.
2062-30 Blue Danube: Star/Winter
Stars look best in rich jewel tones with a blue base like ice blue, true red, and ultraviolet. Black looks best on Stars.
Once you’ve determined your color group, your best bet is to choose colors with either warm or cool tones that are in your color palette. Another thing I like about Life in Color is that the authors have removable color chips by group in the back of the book. For those without access to that book, don’t despair. You can hold scarves or pieces of material of different colors up to your face to determine which colors look best on you. Once you have a pile of color swatches or scarves that look great on you, you can bring those items in to the paint store and have the manager scan them into the computer to determine which paint colors correspond to them. Here’s where your stylebook comes in handy again. Tape your paint color chips or swatches into your stylebook to guide salespeople at your favorite clothing stores. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can take a snapshot of any item and use the ColorCapture application from Benjamin Moore or the ColorSnap application from Sherwin Williams to translate them to paint chip colors. 

Streamline Your Wardrobe with Your Personal Signature and Basic Colors

The best way to build a wardrobe is to choose one or two basic colors, called “neutrals,” to showcase your silhouette and form the building blocks of your outfits. Neutrals are grounding and calming; certain neutral shades will work best for your color palette:
Sun/Summer
Suns look best in medium, warm brown; chocolate brown; and ivory. Grays are probably not ideal for you. 
Earth/Fall
Earths look best in brown hues with a yellow base like chocolate or camel or medium light khaki. Medium or light gray and olive green are probably not a good idea.
Moon/Winter
Moons look best in cool grays and dark navy blue. Beige and brown colors are not good for Moons.
Star/Spring
Stars look best in cool medium to dark gray or bright white. Beige, mustard and olive green will probably not work for you.
Suits, skirts, and pants in your basic colors will form a base for you to pop your tops and accessories with your signature colors. This is the fun part. Your signature color is whichever shade in your color palette (Sun, Earth, Moon, or Star), not a neutral, that gives you the most joy and makes you feel just right. It will be the color or colors that make you look the best when held up to your face and that fit your personality. Do let me know which is yours.
 
At any rate, I hope you find some of this advice to be helpful. In my opinion, I think keeping things organized on hangers sounds like a really easy way to get dressed in the morning, and I would imagine others may use this technique as well. It is a bit too organized for me to use at home, but I generally use this technique when unpacking my suitcase for national convention or Washington Seminar.
 
Hope this helps,
Elizabeth
  		 	   		  


More information about the NFBMI-Talk mailing list