Pantone Inspired Christmas Posters & Cards. Christmas By Colour.

Last year Raw Design Studio of Greater Manchester created a very fun project that utilized consumer opinion, content and creativity to bring Christmas By Colour to life.



A collaborative project that explored the colours (or colors, as we spell it in the U.S.) that people personally associate with Christmas --other than the traditional red, green and white. The project resulted in Christmas By Colour, Pantone®-inspired Christmas Colours which they turned into a poster and sold to benefit a charity. This year they've created another poster as well as greeting cards.



To create Christmas By Colour, Raw reached out to the online community and asked people to submit their best "Christmas" colors and assign a related name to each.



Thousands of people from around the world embraced the project and relished the opportunity to suggest their own colour and its personal meaning. Raw then handpicked the best to go on their nice list and be featured on their popular Pantone-inspired A1 poster, wrapping paper and cards whose proceeds were donated to C.A.L.M - a charity aimed at helping young men deal with depression.

Submitted were several very clever (and some not so clever) names and colors. Here are the selection for the "Nice List" and in turn, are the ones printed on this years' poster:







The resulting products:

"Hue, hue, hue…" A set of twelve Christmas cards based on colours submitted to their Christmas by Colour project. The cards are split into two packs with six in each pack, printed 4-colour litho on Trucard and measure 165mm x 117mm. They are blank inside and white envelopes are included.

The set includes the following designs:

Pack one:

Quality Street (Guy Moorhouse)
Sprouts (John Dowling)
Yellow snow (Nick Greenwood)
Mulled wine (Tash Willcocks)
End of the Sellotape (Pete Clarke)
Park Lane & Mayfair (Jez Burrows)

Pack two:

Bank balance (Tom Heaton)
Granny's whiskers (Jordan Nelson)
After Eights (Shane Phillips)
Bucks Fizz (Gil Cocker)
Pigs in blankets (Sean Rees)
Walking in the Air (Kelly Mackenzie)

buy them here


"So this is Christmas..." Limited edition poster and a free sheet of wrapping paper:



Printed on 135gsm Naturalis Absolute white thanks to those fantastic people at GFSmith. Limited edition of 500 includes a free A2 sheet of CBC wrapping paper! The chosen colors were also turned into stickers for the poster tubes:



buy the poster here

Raw Design Studio
The Engine House
Islington Mill Studios
James Street
Salford, Greater Manchester
M3 5HW

Passionate about Pantone? Then, boy do I have posts for you:

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It's A Pantone Party! More Pantone Products

The Pantone Party Continues With More New Products

Pantone Continues Their Colorful Collaborations

Pantone A Plenty... AGAIN! Now For The Kitchen

More Pantone Products! Folding Chairs, Storage Boxes ...

Three Pantone Bikes - Color Me 364C With Envy

San Francisco As Seen By Artists Greg Gandy And Jeremy Mann

Principle Gallery in Virginia, recently showed a painting exhibit named 'City Views' featuring the work of San Francisco-based artists, Jeremy Mann and Greg Gandy.

I have long been a fan of Greg Gandy's and am now a new fan of Jeremy Mann's as well. Having grown up in the SF Bay Area, I feel these contemporary artists captured the essence of the unique urban experience and ambiance that is San Francisco.


Greg Gandy:
In Greg Gandy's photo realistic paintings, the golden light of sunrise and sunset (the "magic" hour) is a major element, as it bounces off the sloped hills and city buildings silhouetting, or back-lighting, city buildings, cars and people. Bridges and freeways peek out through sunny glares and midday fog. Even the omnipresent city traffic on the one-way streets is executed in such a manner that it simultaneously summons both attraction and familiarity. Shadows are long and inviting as opposed to being ominous. The city is crowded and active but feels serene and unrushed. His works fill the viewer with a calm glimpse of busy urban life and can be gazed upon for hours on end.


Leaving Broadway:

Morning Commute:

Crossing Market:

Pine and Webster:

Sunrise Over The Bay:

Sunset On Pine:

Sunset Over The Golden Gate:

Sunset Over Twin Peaks:

Afternoon Shoppers:

Sunset On California II:

Clouds Over North Beach:

Morning In Knob Hill:

View From Portrero Hill:

See more Greg Gandy paintings and inquire about the sizes, prices and availability here.


Jeremy Mann:
In Jeremy Mann's work, which is more loosely executed than Gandy's with visible brush strokes and a more frenetic painting style, the seductive allure of the city's rolling fog and rainy wet streets is undeniable. His nighttime scenes, with blurring headlights and streetlights reflecting on the wet pavement, perfectly combine a loneliness with longing. In several of his other works, he captures the 'midday haze'; a mix of activity, atmosphere and the look and feel of heat rising from pavement or mist as it hangs above the asphalt. Bathed in blues, greys and yellows, he immortalizes both the emotion and beauty of the 'City by The Bay'.

The Fog & the City In Silver:

Midday Haze In Blue:

Midday Haze In Yellow:

Pale Morning Haze:

San Francisco Downtown Sunset:

Sutter Street And Rain In Blue:

Evening Lights On Market Street:

Evening In Blues:

Evening In Greys:

Evening Fog In Blue & Green:

Lower Fillmore In the Evening:


See more of Jeremy Mann's work and inquire about the sizes, prices and availability here.

If you have a fondness for San Francisco, or just enjoy urban paintings, these two young artists have managed to capture the essence of a populated city with a calming gestalt. They both work in oils and sizes of the works are as small as 12" x 12" and as large as 51" x 48" .

These two artists were also featured last year in a show of Cityscapes at Studio Gallery in San Francisco which still has some smaller pieces of both their work available.

• Principle Gallery
• Greg Gandy's own site
• Jeremy Mann's own site

Creature Comforts. Cute Cozy Hot Water Bottle Covers By Janice Yan-Yan Wu

Artist and designer Janice Yan-Yan Wu of Montreal has turned recycled fleece and vintage fabrics into fun and functional hot water bottle covers she calls Hotties.



The line of products has one of those annoying names that requires lots of punctuation and only serves to confuse people, [from:to:from], but the products are adorable. An earth-friendly way to keep warm, ward off muscle pain and cramps or just cuddle with a cozy creature.



Each hottie is made from a mix of first hand fleece fabric and recycled cotton and vintage prints collected from her community in Montreal. Each comes with the rubber hot water bottle insert and can be easily, filled, cleaned and stored. The covers can be removed and stuffed and used as pillows if you prefer.









The unusual photos shown above were shot by photographer Michael Abril.

She sells them on Etsy as well as at the following Montreal stores:

Arterie Boutique
176 Bernard Ouest
Montreal, QC H2T 2K2
(514) 273-3933

Galerie Zone Orange
410 Saint Pierre
H2Y 2M2
Montréal, QC
Tel) 514-510-5809

Other hot water bottle covers worth checking out are:



•Disaster Designs Hot Water Bottle Covers

•Heal's luxury fur hot water bottles

•Beautifully woven hot water bottle covers are designed and produced by textile designer Angharad Mclaren, in Shetland.