One of the greatest things about sharing a love of design with Sarah, is the fact that we share various books, sites and creative inspiration on a daily basis. She was kind enough to get me Color Index for my birthday, which provides 1100 color combinations with their RGB and CMYK values. I absolutely love the power that this book, alongside the Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color provide. I have come to discover color combinations that would never have occurred to me, yet prove to be exactly what I need for a specific project. It can be hard to move beyond favorite colors or combinations without some visual inspiration. A quick flip through the pages of this book solves that problem!

Leatrice Eiseman has put together a beautiful guide to color usage that is useful to designers and non-designers alike. While it discusses color theory and the connotations of specific colors, I find its strength lies in the color combinations and the way they are categorized.

Many projects requires a solid color set, to convey a specific tone (subdued, traditional, unique…) – a daunting task while staring at a blank screen. Yet, easily solved by flipping through the book and choosing a few color sets for application within a layout.

For non-designers, this book is just as useful in other areas, including paint choices (why stick with boring wall colors?), and I would assume, fashion.

While this book has much in common with Color Index, I think of them as complimentary to each other, as opposed to redundant.