“Color sends a message,’” says Kate Smith, a color expert who works as a corporate color consultant. “There’s some message on our mind, whether it’s conscious or unconscious.”

So, what does purple mean when it comes to politics?

Because it is a combination of red and blue, it carries some meanings from both colors. “You’re communicating the trustworthiness from blue as well as some red, the power, the in-charge side of red,” says Smith, who owns Sensational Color, a company based in Washington, D.C. “They’re unifying.”

While Designer Isaac Mizrahi, who designed the deep plum colored dress worn by First Lady Michelle Obama was most likely motivated by fashion and trends rather than politics, he did delight at George Stephanopoulos’s observation about the color being politically correct:

“It was like the politics of the clothes,” he said. “She was saying, ‘Not left, not right.’ It was kind of like a bipartisan dress. George Stephanopoulos said how interesting it was that she was in a kind of purple-y color, which is a blend of red and blue. Love that.”

I also liked your observation, George.  No, not that the color purple was a bipartisan blend of red and blue.  That’s been said since President Obama was first elected.  What I liked is that you called it “a kind of purple-y color” rather than purple.

Purple (or violet as it is called in color theory) is a color that is visual balance of red and blue.  Purple embodies the balance of red’s stimulation and blue’s calm. This dichotomy can cause unrest or uneasiness unless the undertone is clearly defined, at which point the purple takes on the characteristics of its undertone.

However, in this case it goes beyond undertone since Michelle Obama’s dress, Joe Biden’s tie and Nancy Pelosi’s suit are not really purple at all.  They are all variations of red-violet.  Yep, that’s right.  What was called “purple-y” by George and plum by Isaac is actually a hue known as red-violet.

I mention this not only to point out how verbalizing color is anything but precise but to show you how a difference in hue can change what the color communicates.

Like purple,  red-violet carries some of the messages and meanings of both red and blue however this hue leans more towards red than blue.  In the case of red-violet the influence of red (power, action, confidence, a sense of protection from fears and anxiety) would be a bit stronger since that hue is more pronounced.

Now this is where it gets interesting when you try to read the message behind the color.

Was the message one of unification?  I’d like to think so.

Could their choice of a red-violet, whether conscious or unconscious, instead of a hue with a more equal balance of red and blue come out of a need to feel more in control or remind us (or themselves) of who is in charge?  I’ll leave that for you to decide.

More about this hue:

• Trend Tuesday: Color Speaks Out and It’s Voice is Red-Violet
• I’m Dreaming of a Red-Violet Garden
• See more about what the colors say in the Detroit Free Press Did purple apparel send a message at the State of the Union address?

Related:

• Photos from White House Flickr
• All About the Color Red
• All About the Color Blue
• All About the Color Purple
  

With a resolution like ‘Learn More‘ you can be sure I didn’t pass up the opportunity to tune in each day as my fellow experts shared their resolutions and tips.  Are you curious about what I learned from ten experts in ten days when I turned the table and became the student rather than the teacher?

Here are my top ‘take aways’ — one from each expert:

Day One: Have Fun ~ Jamie Drake, Interior Designer to Michael Bloomberg and Madonna

When I saw ‘Have Fun’ and Jamie Drake in the same sentence I knew I was in for a treat.  Jamie delivered and before I even finished listening to the interview and reading his tips my mind was sparking with new ideas.  The one that I want to put into action immediately is this tip but with my own little tweak:

Make a bold and dramatic statement with your children’s artwork. Use eight pieces of artwork—all on the same size paper—and frame in all the same frames. Hang in two rows of four, spaced one-inch apart.

I have several of my son’s early drawings that I framed with identical mats and frame and I still love them.  But why let the kids have all of the fun?

In the room shown above, Jamie chose works of art rather than a child’s artwork but it got me thinking.  Why not just get out some paper and expressively paint stripes, blocks or swirls of color?  I’m bound to come up with a few paintings that I like as a set.

Why don’t you give it a try, too.  No need to paint as well as a great artist only as well as you did when you were four years old.  Most of all don’t forget Jamie’s resolution and have fun!

Day Two: Learn From the Past ~ Judith Miller, International Antiques Authority and BBC’s Antiques Roadshow Expert

Like Judith I enjoy mixing antiques and contemporary pieces and agree that things with great design go together very easily.  I loved the tip about buying singles and learned how this is a great acquisition strategy for the budget-minded.  It is also great for those of us who love mixing rather than matching styles.

Buying single chairs is an incredibly good way to get good bargains. If you like a certain style, choose that style and go and buy that single style. If you like the styles of a period, for example late Eighteenth Century, you can go and buy different chairs from that one time period.

This idea can work for buying new chairs as well old.

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I used this same strategy to buy my ‘mixed pattern’ set of sterling flatware one piece at a time. I love that every piece came from a different place and try to imagine what hands might have held each piece before it found its way into my home.

Day Three: Get Organized ~ Clay Ide, Creative Director, Pottery Barn

I was doing a lot of head nodding while reading Clay’s tips.  It seems we are of like minds because so much of what he suggested are things I already do.   I learned from Clay’s tips that I’m on the right track so I’m going to mention the tip that I think is the most valuable for you to learn:

Letting Go Decide what you must keep and let go of the rest. Reading is my rejuvenation, so I’ve selected my favorite books to keep on display at home, but I make it a point to share, donate, and trade everything else.

Coincidentally, I saw a related tip on Writer in Waiting that I think is a one of the best ways I’ve heard of to get the entire family involved in simplifying and decluttering the house as a weekly event.  I love the fun and simple 13 Thursdays approach.

13 Thursdays Each member of my household must bring me 13 objects every Wednesday, things such as their ‘toys,’ clothing etc … items which they no longer use, preferably their ‘wants’ not ‘needs’. No whining allowed. It is then separated into two piles; donations and trash, then donated or put out to trash Thursday morning.

Day Four: Improve Your Relationship ~ Kenneth Brown, Celebrity Interior Designer, HGTV and TLC Television Host

When it comes to creating an inviting bedroom Kenneth suggested engaging the senses and feeling stress-free.  I compared his tips to my own bedroom design.  Lighting, check.  Color, check.  Flowers, candles, bedding, rugs, all checked.  No TV, laptop or work stuff, uhhh…check. (Working in bed on a really cold January evening doesn’t count, does it?)

But then I read one tip I hadn’t thought about.  Family photos.

Keep your in-laws and ex’s out of your bedroom. Remove any framed pictures of your parents, in-laws, ex’s and even children.  Your romantic bedroom should only have pictures of you and your partner framed in a simple frame next to the bed.  You don’t want to stare at your mother-in-law while feeling romantic.

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I see your point Kenneth.  Those few pictures of my son on the night stand will now be enjoyed in the family room and I’m ready for a little ‘unobserved’ relationship building.

Day Five: Exercise More ~ Ramona Braganza, Fitness Expert to the Stars

No convincing needed here.  It took years for me to find a routine that would motivate me enough to take the time to exercise regularly.  Now that I have, exercising has gone from a nagging item on my ‘to-do’ list to a treat.

Ramona gave lots of great suggestions but what I especially appreciated wasn’t one of her tips per se but her over-arching philosophy about the workout environment.

Overall, think of a workout like any other experience.  It’s enhanced when you engage all your senses. Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch, and Taste can motivate you to Exercise More!

That was an ah-ha moment.  I don’t have a workout room at home but color maven Kiki does and as you can see she has incorporated all of the elements Ramona mentioned.  I thought it was just her desire to have the workout room look as stylish as the rest of her home.  Now I know there might have been more to it.  No wonder she and her hubby are always so motivated to workout.

Day Six: Be More Green, Save Green ~ Kelly Van Patter, Awarding-Winning Production Designer for Survivor and The Apprentice

The first thing I learned is that while Kelly proactively has focused on going green I arrived at many of the same ideas when I challenged myself to live with less ’stuff’ and to spend my money more wisely.  It was a bonus to learn that my approach gets the thumbs up for being environmentally friendly.

One thing that Kelly mentioned that I had never thought about in terms of being green was the value of editing.  This tip made me pause and think.

Take All Of The Furniture Out Of The Room And Start Over. Learn the art of editing EVERYTHING in your home. We all have a tendency to collect things over time, so it’s imperative that we assess our collections each year and get rid of unnecessary pieces. It’s easy to overlook things that serve no purpose, have been taking up space and collecting dust for years. One easy way to completely change a room is to just streamline all the items in it. Remove all the furniture from a room and piece by piece, bring only the necessary items back into the room. Take the other items to the Goodwill, Salvation Army, shelters or some other place that will give it to people that desperately need the items. That way they can be reused and aren’t being sent to a landfill. Then you are left with a less cluttered, new room for virtually NO money. Plus it is so liberating to get rid of all the clutter and have a clean canvas to work with.

Day Eight: Make Time for Family & Friends ~ Jenn Sbranti, Entertaining Guru, Hostesswiththemostess.com

Jenn’s tips were all about entertaining as a way to engage in conversation, activities and simply being together.  She inspired me to take an ‘entertaining’ approach to spending more time with my friends and family.

Serve a Signature Drink This is such an easy idea that’s always so well received at parties. Create a fun cocktail or mocktail, come up with a clever name for the drink that coordinates with your theme, and add a fun edible garnish and/or creative cocktail pick.

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I’ve come up with signature cocktails for events but never at home.  I’m not sure why I never thought to do this from my own little gathering.  You can be sure next time I’m having folks over I will be concocting something colorful to drink.

Day Nine: Expand Your Horizons ~ Michael Green, Wine & Spirits Consultant and Educator

What I learned from Michael is that there is no need to feel guilty about buying wine by design.

Choose bottles by their label design to add surprise. When you’re lost in the aisles of your favorite wine and spirits shop, try something new by design. Look for the most interesting bottle or the most outrageous label and enjoy the surprise that may await you inside the bottle, too.

Sure I’ve bought wine just because the label caught my eye but my secret desire to be more of a wine aficionado would scold me for being sucked in by good design.  Not any more, thanks to Michael.  Now when I’m smitten with a bottle of wine strictly based on its great label I’m going to buy it without hesitation and enjoy discovering if the wine inside is as satisfying as the design on the outside.

Day Ten: Each of Us Can Make an Impact Through the Power of Giving ~ You!

The final design day was all about giving back and it was a good reminder to me that–

Giving back is a personal thing; we all have good reasons to support the charitable organizations that we do.

Readers shared their stories, showed their support and had a chance to influence which organization was going to receive a contribution thanks to a generous donation from Benjamin Moore.

I learned about several charities that were new to me and also discovered a brilliant way to wrap up a successful online event.

Day Seven: Learn More ~Kate Smith, Color Expert and Forecaster

Yep, that’s me and here’s what else I learned from participating in Ten Design Days.

All of my fellow experts were excellent and gave great suggestions.  What I noticed as I was picking out the ideas that most resonated with me was that each one touched upon some aspect of life that is important to me right now.  What I learned:

What we learn is influenced by our current world view.

This reminded me of the quote Julie include in Colorful Insights And Inspirations — “When the student is ready, the master appears.”  Could it be that the I was simply ready to learn these particular things?

In my tips I said, “There will always be areas to explore, ideas to captivate, and connections to discover, there will always be something new and exciting to learn.” Now let me add “and this is true even if you think you’ve heard it all before.”

We change.  Things around us change.   And with each change comes the opportunity for a fresh perspective and for our minds to be opened to seeing and hearing thing differently than we have in the past.  Isn’t that really what learning is all about?

So what have you learned lately?

The little graphic image identifies the color of each pencil.  See the code system below.

He took it upon himself to further explore the concept of ‘inclusion’ beyond his thesis and develop a color coding system for colorblind people. Miguel developed monochromatic graphic images and a code that allows the 10% of the world’s population that is colorblind to identify colors. This is especially important in situations where color is the determining factor in the decision-making.

The first fully licensed design of its kind, ColorAdd® has become a challenging and motivating project for the designer, who is currently working with a multidisciplinary team in Portugal to expand its reach.

Read more about this innovative color code system at ICOGRADA

New Year’s Eve is more than just a time for celebrating.  It is a time for reflecting on the past, and looking forward to the coming year.  A time to to take stock of where we are and maybe more importantly where we’d like to be in the future.

Of course being somewhere other than where we are now means moving into action and often making changes.  However, for most of us making those changes takes a great deal of resolve, which often begins with the small step of setting our intention as a ‘New Year’s resolution’.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin

This morning I have been reflecting on how, in the words of Benjamin Franklin, I might find myself a better (wo)man in 2010.  So many things came to mind that the hardest part was narrowing my resolutions to a manageable list.

I finally whittled it down to my ‘top 12′ and decided that the best way for me to keep my resolutions top-of-mind throughout the year is to link each to a hue on the color wheel.  Plus it makes thinking about change much more fun when it’s color coded, doesn’t it?

Choosing the first color yellow-orange was easy.  I can only hope that I have the same ease in keeping the resolution.

Resolution: Yellow-Orange — Be a more daring and determined entrepreneur

My inspiration — The Color of Veuve Clicquot — and no it isn’t because a bit of alcohol might make me more daring or bold so read on.

The Color of Veuve Clicquot: Orange or Yellow?

I had barely made it in the door and removed my wrap last night before my host appeared with a crystal flute, an open bottle of Veuve Clicquot and a little good-natured chiding.

“The color of the evening is ORANGE!”

My lips popped apart about as fast as the cork had surely left the bottle of Champagne he was holding but being the gracious guest I caught myself before saying a word…however not quite fast enough to disguise the fact words had been about to spill out.

“What? What were you going to say? I know you were about to say something so now you have to tell me!”

“Oh it was nothing. Really.”

“Kaaaate”

“Okay, all I was going to say was yellow”

“Yellow?”

“Yes, the color of Veuve Clicquot is actually yellow not orange.  That’s all.”

My host looked at the label and then back at me and then at the label again and then back at me before exclaiming, “No way! That’s not yellow! (long pause) Is it?”

“Well I often hear people call it orange so your not alone but the company calls it yellow.”

“Really?” he said skeptically.

“I bet if I asked everyone at this party what color this is they would say orange not yellow” and that is exactly what he proceeded to do.

When the answered were tallied orange was the clear winner with yellow trailing far behind.

My host proudly announced, “I said the color is orange and Kate said yellow. Thank you for proving that I was right not Miss Smarty Color Pants”

Hmm, I think he might have meant to say “Miss Color Smarty Pants” but I suspect a few glasses of the bubbly might have had something to do with turning the nickname into a moniker that was (at least to me) much funnier.

This conversation did however remind me that my appreciation of Veuve Clicoquot goes beyond the delectable taste and signature color.   It also extends to the woman behind the brand and she is the reason that I chose this as the perfect hue for such a weighty resolution.

Madame Clicquot known as the Grande Dame de la Champagne was a woman of great vision. Here’s her story as told on the Veuve Clicquot website:

Madame Clicquot’s life could have been typical of that of many 18th-century young ladies in France.
Born into a wealthy family, she made a good marriage to François Clicquot, who owned a champagne business, in 1798, before giving birth to a little girl called Clémentine.

However, her natural curiosity encouraged her to take an interest in the house’s affairs, and, when her husband died prematurely, she decided to take up the reins of the estate.
Her strength of character and business sense transformed her family-in-law’s trade into a great Champagne House.
While her representatives travelled throughout Europe and her champagne was shipped across the seas the world over, Madame Clicquot personally took charge of the cellars, choosing her motto as only one quality, the finest.

She invented the riddling table in order to obtain champagne wines that were as clear, distinct and limpid as possible. She gradually acquired land in vineyards with the best crus, which are now part of Veuve Clicquot’s exceptional wine heritage.

Her contemporaries already considered her as a great lady and she became known as the Grande Dame de la Champagne.

She died in 1866, in her château, surrounded by those she had loved with generosity and tenderness.
Today she holds sway over every bottle of champagne sold by Veuve Clicquot, reigning over an empire of bubbles appreciated by all connoisseurs of excellent champagne.

If you are interested in reading all of the details of this incredible woman’s journey I recommend the book The Widow Cliquot.

I think Madame Clicquot is the perfect role model!  She was a daring and determined entrepreneur, a bold risk taker, and an audacious and intelligent woman who took control of her own destiny when fate left her on the brink of financial ruin.

As I strive to find my own resolve the Widow Clicquot — Veuve Cliquot as it is said in French — and her signature yellow (or as I would describe it yellow-orange) are the perfectly paired inspiration to keep me on track.

So while I work to keep my resolution I’ll be thinking about the woman that inspired a level of excellence that continues to drive the prestigious Champagne House with the yellow (or call it orange if you must) label.

What will inspire you to keep striving towards your own resolutions this year?

PS — I was so taken by the Veuve Clicquot Rose ads and ice dress I found while on the Veuve Clicquot website that I wrote a post about it for Color for Your Home titled  Perfect Color Combination: Pink and Yellow-Orange

Like any longstanding tradition there are enough stories about its origins to keep a cultural anthropologist busy for a long time but I have a few favorite theories that come complete with the color and controversy that makes any tale worth retelling.

SPRIGS OF HOLLY

Some think that it all began with the shiny green leaves and bright red berries of a sprig of holly.  A good thought since red and green are the only bright colors that seem to survive in nature when temperatures plummet but this isn’t why we link it to Christmas.

The Roman’s celebrated Saturnalia a December festival that honored the god Saturn and preceded the celebrating of Christmas.  During the Saturnalia festival holly wreaths were given as gifts.

It has been said that in the 4th century leaders in the Catholic Church came up with the idea to celebrate Christmas on December 25 in order to outdo the Saturnalia festivities of the pagan religion that at the time threatened Christianity’s existence.  Even though it is thought that Christ birth actually took place during the spring the December date was chosen to celebrate the birth of Christ and to compete with the rival festival.

Sounds like a modern day battle of brands rather than the origins of a religious holiday doesn’t it?  Of course if you are going to usurp the holiday why not take over the symbols, too and give them some deeper, and of course religious meanings.

It is said that only the holly tree consented to be cut down and its wood made into a cross to bear Jesus. Some Christians believe that Jesus wore a crown of holly thorns whose berries were originally white. As Jesus’ blood touched the berries, they turned red. The green leaves of the holly plant have come to represent everlasting life and the berries the blood of Jesus. –BBC Religion, Christmas Traditions

Years later church fathers also gave a nod to Holly as a decoration to replace mistletoe.  What?  I love mistletoe.  Why would anyone want to replace mistletoe?
Back to religious leaders and their desire to squelch pagan beliefs.  About two hundred years before the birth of Christ mistletoe was used by the Druids to celebrate the coming of winter.  When congregation members began using mistletoe as Christmas decoration,,,you guessed it.  This would never do so church fathers suggested that sprigs of holly would be a more appropriate adornment and suitable replacement for mistletoe.

And here my first though was that they didn’t like mistletoe because it allowed you to surprise anyone standing beneath it with a big kiss.  Silly me!

POINTSETTIAS

Many think that the tradition of red and green started with the  poinsettia plant but that didn’t become a symbol of Christmas until much more recently.  Recent at least when you look at the big timeline of all human history.

The poinsettia is native to Mexico where its yellow flower surrounded by bright red leaves (yep the flower is the small yellow center and the red many think of as the blossom are actually the top leaves) is symbolic of the star of Bethlehem.

The plant along with its Christmas symbolism was first introduced to America in 1828 by America’s first ambassador to Mexico Joel Poinsett who the popular plant was named after.  Hmm, how do you get to have a plant named after you?  I’m sure there is more to that story but that could take me way off track and I have presents to open.

Anyway poinsettias may be considered the flower of Christmas but they aren’t the reason we think red and green.

PINE GREEN & APPLE RED

I think the most likely root of the red and green tradition dates back to the 1300s when Adam and Eve’s Day was celebrated on December 24th.  Each year on this day churches traditionally presented a Paradise Play depicting the story of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden.

Now you can’t have a story about Adam and Eve without an apple tree but since it wasn’t easy to find a real tree full of ripe, red apples during the winter apples someone came up with the idea of fastening apples to the branches of a pine tree.  This decorated pine tree represented the Tree of Good and Evil.  But the tree wasn’t only seen in the play.  Churches began adding a tree donning red apples into their Christmas displays.

The decorated tree that began as a prop for the Paradise play was so popular especially in Germany, that people began to put pine trees up in their homes during the holiday, decorating them with red apples, as the church folks had done and the tradition of having a Christmas treee was born.

The idea spread and both Christmas trees and the color combination of red and green were well on its way to becoming official symbols of the Christmas holiday.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

We’re no Scrooge!

Christmas is coming, the geese are already fat, and we’d like to say a final thank you to all of you for spending your hard-earned pennies on our Christmas by Colour cards!

Nearly all the packs have flown out of the workshop, and we have been left with a warm Christmassy glow from all the support and festive praise we’ve received from bloggers and CBC fans around the world.

To express our Yuletide gratitude we have designed some CBC screensavers which you can adorn your computer with just in time for the holiday season. Enjoy and have a very merry, colourful Christmas!

How fun!  I just downloaded my screensavers and I don’t think they’ll mind if I share the link with our wonderful readers so if you want one for your own computer or iPhone click here….

See my post on the Christmas by Colour cards and mark your calendar for next November with a reminder to see what CBC have in store for us next year. Happy Holidays.

First out of the gate this year was ICI with their Color of the Year: ‘Icy Blue’.  I love the clean, airy freshness that this color has.  To me this colors feels like a breath of fresh air and opens my mind once again to optimistic “the sky is the limit” thinking.

Next we heard from Pantone and their Color of the Year: ‘Turquoise’ a warmer take on blue.  While the color on the fabric sample sent with their press release seemed to be a rather insipid hue I do think the color appears to be much more interesting in the graphic images of their supporting images.

Of course it is hard to go wrong with me when it comes to this hue.  Anyone that knows me well knows that blue-green is a color that I enjoy in all of its many hues, tints, tones and shades.   Even my signature paint color ‘H2-Ahh!’ in Ellen Kennon’s Full Spectrum line is a complex neutral that is probably often described as bluish, greenish, gray.

Turquoise evokes all of the positive feelings associate with the healing powers and relaxing qualities of water.  Just the prescription for the frazzled nerves and unsettled emotions many have experience it the last year or two.

Now today Global Color Research released Verdigris as their first Color of the Year.  This hue is very close to Pantone’s Turquoise and in the same palette there is a blue that is strikingly similar to ICI’s Icy Blue plus four additional colors.

While it might surprise you that these organizations would come up with similar hues as their Color of the Year it makes perfect sense to those of us involved in color forecasting.  For example twice a year I participate in the color forecasting process with the Color Marketing Group and while each of the color professionals involved does their own independent research we often arrive at the meeting with almost identical colors.

No matter how many times this happens I still find it both amazing and reasuring.  Amazing because when each person picks just a half dozen colors to talk about out of all of the millions of choices the possibility that they will choose the same color seems quite improbable doesn’t it?

At the same time it is reassuring to have my own choices validated and to know that while color trend predicting is not an exact science that when global trends are distilled down to colors there is a synergy to our thought process.

It is for this reason that as you start to look around at the color trends from many companies you’ll see similar colors.  For example just take a look at The Hottest Paint Colors gathered by Christine Pittel for House Beautiful.  Many of the major paint brands have submitted their choice of a hot color for 2010.  Each paint color is different but as you look at them as a group you can see how similar they are to the colors above.

Do you have your own favorite ‘Color of the Year’?  Leave a comment and let me know.

You might also like to see some of our previous posts on the Color of the Year:

Trend Tuesday: ICI’s Color of the Year Icy Blue is Icy Hot

Pantone 2010 Color of the Year: Turquoise.

Maybe we won’t see them in top positions (most of them prefer to tinker behind the scenes) but when anything significant happens you can be sure they will not only be involved but will be the ones that have the ability and resources to develop solutions while many stand around scratching their heads. If you don’t believe just take a look at how well they fared in the DARPA challenge.

From a site sponsored and hosted by the Georgia Tech Research Institute Atlanta, GA

The Idea: DARPA staged a competition to mark the 40th anniversary of the Internet and to explore the roles the Internet and social networking play in the timely communication, wide-area team-building, and urgent mobilization required to solve broad-scope, time-critical problems.

The Challenge: To be the first to submit the locations of 10 moored, 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States. And, no they weren’t in some remote areas or hidden in any way. All of the balloons were placed in easily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads.

Johanna Jones, a spokeswoman for the military’s DARPA, said the hunt is designed in part to give the military new ideas on ways to operate in a range of situations, from natural disasters to combat.

“It’s an opportunity to reach out to groups that are very comfortable with social networking,” she said. “Reaching out to some of these groups, they may actually come up with some great ideas for the future.”

It seems DARPA may not been aware of this awesome ‘nerd power’ when it staged this competition.  Although they were given up to a week to turn in their answers, the winning team found the locations of all ten red balloons in only 9 hours.  Never underestimate the competitive nature and resourcefulness of a group of talented techies.

The Winners: MIT’s Riley Crane only found out about DARPA’s red balloon challenge a few days before it started. Yet his team went on to win the contest through its savvy use of the Internet.

Team MIT’s strategy was to build a Web site designed to attract more and more followers–people who might know the balloons’ locations themselves and those could bring aboard others who knew the coordinates, essentially creating a chain effect.

Read more about the event on CNN.com and more about the winners.

Pretty amazing, huh?  And I bet the $4o,ooo makes the ‘revenge of the nerds’ all that much sweeter.  Nicely done MIT Team!

This fact also fascinated photographer Yoon JeongMee as she began exploring “the trends in cultural preferences and the differences in the tastes of children (and their parents) from diverse cultures, ethnic groups as well as gender socialization and identity” in 2005 through a body of work she calls The Pink & Blue Project.

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As a child my own son was never obsessed with a single color but I have known many children who have (or had) a mono-hue mindset.  Even so I never realized the impact of their “color love” until viewing this series of photographs.  Yikes, some of these young boys and girls seem almost lost in their many, many, (way too many) treasures of pink or blue.

What Yoon JeongMee has to say about The Pink and Blue Project:

This project began with my daughter. My six -year-old daughter loves pink. She wants to wear only pink clothes and only own pink toys and objects. My daughter is not unusual. Most other little girls in the United States and South Korea love pink clothing, accessories and toys. This phenomenon seems widespread among various ethnic groups of children regardless of their cultural backgrounds. This preference is the result of cultural influences and the power of pervasive commercial advertisements such as those for Barbie and Hello Kitty. Through advertising, customers are directed to buy blue items for boys and pink for girls. Blue has become a symbol of strength and masculinity, while pink symbolizes sweetness and femininity.

To make The Pink and Blue Project series, I visited children’s rooms, where I displayed their possessions in an effort to show the viewer the extent to which children and their parents, knowingly or unknowing, are influenced by advertising and popular culture.

Thanks Trendhunter.com for putting me onto The Blue and Pink Project!

You can see all of the photographs on Yoon JeongMee’s website and let me know what you think about all of the pink and blue.