Taste the Rainbow

Colors have a huge impact on our everyday life, from the minute we wake up our mood is effected by our surroundings and the time of the year. Is it sunny or dark and stormy? These differences have enormous impacts on our attitudes, and decisions we make during the day and throughout our lives. Colors not only effect you as a person but they have an impact on others around us, in nature colors often times are warning signs, for example its a general rule that the most brightly colored frogs are the most deadly to us. In other cases birds fan out colored feathers to attract a mate. How the human responds to color is called Color Psychology, and fields of both business and advertising have become experts at specifically targeting an audience. This is even true with logo design, check out this comparison of major companies and the colors they use. When you get a chance do a little reading about web colors and usability, its amazing how a simple logo or background could change the meaning and mood of a site. In reality color theory is a whole expertise on its own, outside of general design. A great tool that we use for designing or for some inspiration is the Adobe Kuler site, it allows you to play with color sets and create your own color scheme or sample those that others have created. And if your just playing around on your computer and need to find out what a particular color your looking at is try this handy color picker site.

Words of wisdom: When I doubt about a specific color choice, take a step back and taste the rainbow.

New Happenings Portfishington

Lots of stuff going on in the neighborhood, and here we go:

Canvas Coffee shop found at the corner of Girard and Colombia has been closed for almost a year now. The former owners moved on to create the greatest burgers around in a little place called Sketch. If you couldn't tell, we love it. Great burgers, anything from your basic American beef to Kobe and Veggie. They have awesome fresh cut fries and shakes too, and they have recently expanded the menu with salads and other sandwiches. Anyway my point was the location of the former Canvas Coffee will soon open up as a Coffee/Record shop. I think this will be a great addition to the area and we kind of miss a coffee shop on this side of the El (besides RocketCat).

We have also heard word of a possible ice cream/soda shop opening on the same side of the street, the outside is painted in green and pink pastels. If this opens up and the rumors are true it has huge potential to be a hit. Not only does it attract the YoCoPros of the Fishtown area but will hopefully bring people in from NoLibs and other areas as well. We can only hope for the span of Girard from the El to Girard Gas to one day look like Second Street in NoLibs.

Third on our list is the construction going on on Front Street, under the El near the Berks stop. Apparently this is going to be home to the new Kensington High School, and their are plans to connect Berks Street with Front. The construction is great and will hopefully help cleanup this strip under the El and allow people to safely walk to and from the El via Berks.