COLOUR STORIES - How a shade comes to life: Clay
Like in each creative workshop, developing a product can be a long, sometimes tedious process. At Eliv Rosenkranz one of our biggest challenges was our colours. In the beginning we specialised in neutrals only, then we wanted a few deeper and more colourful shades in our repertoire too. Finding the right pigments, the right moods, spotting trends while creating a timeless product - our founder and creative director Claudia talks about all of these aspects in our new series: COLOUR STORIES - How a shade comes to life.
Born from a technique that is a thousand years old – at the same time, our most modern shade. Our Clay has had a long journey and after all these years is still with us. And to be honest, it’s probably my favourite shade.
There from the beginning and it has stayed strong in our portfolio
It was there from the beginning of Eliv Rosenkranz, I created it from powder pigments called Umber Burnt. loved the result immediately, so I experimented with different intensities for a long time. I couldn't decide, so there was "light umber" and "dark umber" for a short while. Soon after it became an official shade, the name also needed to change. How that came to be? It’s actually less romantic than you might think but in fact a very “now” story…
Calming and grounded but still a little edgy
At the time I did an Instagram poll to find out what the shade should be called. The suggestion Clay came up and I liked it straight away - since then it has stayed Clay. I like that Clay is one of our stronger and more unconventional shades and still neutral enough for many projects. It reminds me - as the name suggests - of the material clay and I love the aesthetics of ceramic workshops and minimalist pieces by ceramicists around the world. So this colour evokes a calming, grounded feeling in me and I see a lot of modern, sleek designs on it. In my mind, it has always been a slightly edgy but still earthy and versatile colour and that’s why I held onto it while some other colours fell out of our portfolio over time. I guess it's the essence of what I’d like Eliv Rosenkranz to be: born from an age old technique and brought into modern design thinking.
New series coming next year
When we experiment with colours my first thought is how it can be used in different projects. Starting at the beginning of next year, I would like to share these thoughts with you. We’re finishing off our “Colour Stories” series until the end of the year. Next year we’ll start featuring a project, specifically created for the shade it will be printed on. For now, here are my recommendations, as always…
Claudia’s personal design suggestions:
Design Inspirations:
Beautiful idea for a menu and place cards combination by Nicnillas Ink:
And an invitation design by Nicnillas Ink:
And place cards with calligraphy by Nicnillas Ink:
Font recommendations:
A classic small serif font: Begum
A sleek but elegant sans serif: Vanitas
SHOP NOW
Leave a comment