
I saw this on Design Observer’s twitter and thought Rachel Berger’s project was so good, I had to blog about it. I sat after dinner in the kitchen reading Rachel’s favourite forty paint chips.
The project is simple. For 100 days, she picked a paint chip noted the name of the colour and the number of the day (of 100) and responded to it by writing. Everyone knows that there is memory in scent, but a shade or tone of colour can also remind you of things. And it most certainly can influence moods and emotions.
Rachel’s writing is thoughtful. The kind of writing I love. There is a lot of personal experiences, quirky observation and some random facts. Everything that makes for great reading is here.

08 Candied Yams “I bought my first yam this week. I wanted sweet potatoes, which sound a bit friendlier, but the store didn’t have any. The yam is quite rooty, forever looking freshly pulled from the earth — something that is born, grows, and dies in darkness. It’s bumping around my cupboard now, rolling into view when I take out the sugar canister, tin of anchovies. It’s clumsy and bulky. I rudely shove it back, out of my way, further into the darkness.“

48 Moss Landing “Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion opens with a description of the frightening, dripping, verdancy of Oregon. It continues for many pages, and it’s all true. In Portland, moss grows on the roofs of the houses, ferns sprout from cracks in the sidewalk, even the best maintained streets and buildings are prone to sliding around during the dark wet winter. One time in college, I came home for a holiday, and there were huge gray mushrooms growing out of my bedroom carpet.“

52 Glacial Tint “I’m stranded at my father’s house, what Joanna calls “the Greenway Inn,” on Greenway Avenue, way up in the West Hills. It snowed all night and is snowing now. Seven, ten, thirteen inches. Never in my life has it snowed this much in Portland. When I describe the white carnage to people in Connecticut and New York, they are not nearly impressed enough. They think Portland is like I think Denver is, snowy, cold, mountainous. I was shocked when I finally visited Denver and it was flat and sunny.“

57 Cool Melon “Only three times in its hundred-year history has the Crayola company changed the name of a crayon. Prussian Blue became Midnight Blue in 1958 and Indian Red was renamed Chestnut in 1999, both in response to requests from educators. In 1962, the company voluntarily changed Flesh to Peach, partially in response to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.“
Designs are best when they tick the aesthetic box and the functionality box. The best ones also come with a bit of humour. 





































