The Christmas by Colour blog

Christmas by Colour has seen us through two festive seasons. It’s fought its way through a recession; it’s seen a new blue government; and it’s provided us all with a new palette of colours with which to celebrate the month of December. However, all good things must come to an end and we’d like to have fond memories of CBC at the top of the tree, rather than amongst the pesky needles at the bottom.

The recent vote showed that most of you have fond memories of CBC but an advent calendar would’ve been a festive flop, so it is with much wintery woe that we have decided to wrap up the project and focus on other, equally colourful, collaborations. We couldn’t have done it without you (we really couldn’t, we’re not just utilising faux farewells) and hopefully we can come up with another great idea that we can share with you, our loyal troop of elf impersonators.

If you’re a little miffed that CBC is over, fear not. There are a few posters and cards still up for grabs!

The festive season is upon us once more and Christmas by Colour has been a hot topic of conversation in the workshop of late. Can it be polished off and brought out for another year, like that bauble you can’t bear to say goodbye to? Or, should it be laid to rest like last year’s less than spruce Spruce?

We have decided that the decision has to lie with you, our loyal team of tried and trusted elves. If you decide that you would like to see Christmas by Colour adorn another year of Christmas festivities you can vote for a Christmas by Colour advent calendar to make its way to the production line. If you feel that the plethora of colours have had their two years of festive fame, you can take us off your Christmas shopping list and we’ll cut the calendar.

Thanks for your votes! We are currently counting them all up and will be making an announcement shortly.

We’ll let you know CBC’s fate once we’ve counted up the As and Bs! In the meantime, you can still get your mittens on our posters and cards.

Thanks to everyone who submitted their 3 favourite colours from our shortlist. We totted up all of the votes and were left with 12 great cards:

• 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)
• 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)

See the Christmas cards

A few of last year’s posters are still available but Santa also has something new up his sleeve for your enjoyment this holiday season: CBC-themed Christmas cards!

After scrolling through the whole poster, and having a right laugh along the way, we’ve made things a little easier for you and narrowed the choice down to 40 of our personal favourites (see post below). It’s now down to you, our loyal troop of elves, to vote for your all-time favourite Christmas colour, with the top 12 being made into festive greetings cards for you to share this holiday season.

Have fun selecting your favourite 3!

Christmas by Colour has been recognised by the prestigious Roses Design Awards. Judged by industry heavyweights, such as Michael Wolff, the awards recognise the best work to come out of the design and architecture fields, outside the M25.

We were very happy to see CBC nominated in the Best Poster category. The not-for-profit poster explored the real colours that shape our Christmas, spreading festive fun on a global scale thanks to the support of numerous design blogs and willing participants from the creative community.

The Best Poster category seems to have an underlying Manchester theme to it, including LOVE, The Chase and Design by Music as our fellow nominees, which makes us very proud to represent sunny Salford and our creative haven, Islington Mill.

The awards ceremony takes place in a couple of weeks so we still have plenty of time to work on our dance moves, and perfect our gracious clapping and award-worthy smiles. We’re all very excited and will be sure to let you know how we fare in the battle of Manchester’s creatives!

Thanks again for all your festive suggestions and charitable poster purchases!

Our friends over at C.A.L.M. – a charity that raises awareness of depression in young men – are feeling pretty happy after receiving our cheque for £1,023.18! The money was raised by people all around the world who decided to buy one of our festive Christmas by Colour posters.

This is what C.A.L.M.’s Director Jane Powell had to say about our work:

It was fantastic to hear about Raw’s project, Christmas by Colour, and to have the support of such a great and innovative company particularly during these tough economic circumstances. Last month C.A.L.M. received the greatest demand on the phoneline to date, with young men ringing about depression and fears of repossession and unemployment. The money raised by Raw will help keep our phonelines going and help stop suicide.

Here’s a selection of our favourite swatches from the project.

A massive thanks to all the sites that helped us accumulate such fantastic submissions.

• formfiftyfive.com
• thunderchunky.co.uk
• qbn.com
• booooooom.com
• designyoutrust.com
• apartmenttherapy.com
• dirtymouse.co.uk
• swisslegacy.com
• kitsunenoir.com
• colourlovers.com
• Salford Design Dojo forums
• trendbeheer.com
• obsessilicious.blogspot.com
• makingcreativematter.com
• effektiveblog.com
• rightbrainterrain.com
• loveleft.com
• sensationalcolor.com
• thelittlechimpsociety.com
• threeareblog.com
• applesandowls.com

Being silent isn’t being strong.

All profits made from Christmas by Colour were donated to C.A.L.M. (Campaign Against Living Miserably). The charity offers help, information and advice via a phone and web service. Anyone, regardless of age, gender or location, can get in touch.

Visit thecalmzone.net

Times are hard, so I’ve decided to design my own cards this year, this is the one I’ve gone with.

I picked up the Christmas tree today. I should have worn gloves really, next year we’re going plastic.

The posters arrived this afternoon and needless to say we are chuffed with them!

We’ve turned the studio into a great Santa’s workshop, and even managed to get the first batch of 100 in the post!

After trawling through the best part of 1,000 submissions, we’ve managed to narrow it down to this ‘short’ list.

Find out who’s been ‘nice’ (PDF)

Not long now until the posters are ready…

By the way, tomorrow we’ll be posting ‘The Nice List’ with who’s made the final cut!

A big thank you to GF Smith for supplying the paper free of charge.

Our lovely posters will be printed on 135gsm Naturalis Absolute White.

I’m from north Italy. We love Christmas snow. Those days it seems more beautiful than ever!

It seems Christmas is really about Grannies! Here are a few of the latest submissions.

Santa always left some Mint Matchmakers at my Grandma and Grandad’s by mistake.

My parents, grandparents, brothers and I dining at our house beside the advent wreath, through whose candles the light shines in a glowing blue.

I’m in Australia, a large land where men are men and wear Blue Stratos.

The Boy Fitz Hammond has been kind enough to send us an illustration of his submission. How’s this for a pair of ‘winter cheeks’? Hilarious!

Here’s a selection of the best submissions from the last few days.

Love them or hate them, Brussels sprouts are synonymous with Christmas. Invisible from shopping lists for 364 days a year, they are the little green balls that make the rest of the meal taste even better in comparison. Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s alter egos Eddie and Richie put it best:

EDDIE: Not sprouts! I hate sprouts!
RICHIE: Oh will you stop whinging Eddie! Nobody likes sprouts.
EDDIE: Then why are we having them then?
RICHIE: Because it’s Christmas!

I require a flat cap and scarf combo the same hue as the trunk of the Christmas tree.

Here are a few of the early colour suggestions.