Who needs Pantone when you can create your own colors? A multi-talented artist from Los Angeles recently created a color chart that helps her write better.
Ingrid Sundberg knows color. You might find this statement ironic when presented with a picture of Ingrid. Her hair is currently purple. But an out-of-the-box hair color is only the tip of the iceberg. Ingrid Sundberg really knows her colors and she is sharing her knowledge with the world through a color thesaurus.
Arranging and naming 240 unique colors, Ingrid compiled a seemingly comprehensive thesaurus. However, her purpose in completing this strategic art activity was not to publish a reference manual. Her goal has always been to boost her creative writing. With this lexicon of colors before her, she can create descriptive and intriguing work. “I use it all the time when I write. It really helps in revision as I try to make my work fresh and vibrant,” says Ingrid.
Other writers benefit from this thesaurus, too. Those who read and follow Ingrid’s blog, “Ingrid’s notes,” may have known about the color guide. However, Ingrid wants everyone to know it is not official. “This was something I made for myself based on color words I liked and the colors the words evoked for me…” she tells Board Panda. This explains how inventive colors like bumblebee, tiger and penny made the list.
Now that multiple media sources have reported on the color thesaurus, some haters are emerging, claiming the various shades of black are too similar and pointing out how Pantone already created a comprehensive color chart. Unfortunately, these people overlook what motivated Ingrid to create such a chart in the first place. She was never trying to cut corners or appease the world around her; she wanted to create a tool to help her write descriptive and intriguing passages.
Such a color chart does more than enhance her writing; it may add to her visual artwork as well. That’s right—Ingrid publishes novels for young adult readers and illustrates children’s books, too.
Ingrid credits her broad range of artistic talents to a childhood where, living in Maine, she cultivated a vivid imagination. On her journey from being an engaged child to a lifelong learner, Ingrid received a bachelor’s degree in illustration and a master’s degree in screenwriting.
While we do not know if the color thesaurus helps Ingrid bake better (because yes – she bakes too: http://www.ingridcakes.blogspot.com/), she likes its assistance so much that she is making additional color charts: a hair color chart and “emotions/facial expressions thesaurus” are in the works.
It seems that Ingrid has accomplished what she intended. Better yet, she has proven to be a talented creative writer: her first book, All We Left Behind, will be published in 2015.
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That is SO totally cool! Seriously, this is brilliant. Thank you, Ingrid! As an artist-writer I REALLY appreciate this!
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
One of the biggest challenges I’ve found as a writer is finding the most accurate and descriptive color names for skin-tones, hair-tones, and clothing-tones. I find myself constantly poking around wiki pages and holding things up to my monitors finding what’s “just right” and then being mad that the name for the color doesn’t really jibe with whatever tone i’m trying to set.
I love your blog. There’s so much color… and always in an innovative way. keep up the good blogging!
Excellent post… Truly interesting!, best wishes, Aquileana 😀