Let me start off by saying I wasn’t always as florist. I actually spent my entire university career and years after as an oil painter. My homework consisted of the color wheel, mixing palettes and balancing color harmonies. I would spend hours in the studio exploring the nuances and depths of color.

Now, as a florists I’m truly still painting, painting with flowers! This was my big ah-ha moment as a designer and part of my journey for discovering how to harness the power of color in all my floral designs. So many designers I speak to are afraid of bold, impactful arrangements. Learning to balance complex harmonies takes time! Im convinced with a little bit of practice, and a little bit of guidance you too can fear bold colors no more.

I recorded an entire course on color theory along with a full centerpiece tutorial. You can find it here!

We are going to be breaking down this design with the digital color wheel app offered by Canva. You can find the app here! They’ve made the color wheel fun by allowing you to select the color harmony you want to create and moving the wheel with your cursor. Can you guess which color harmony this is? It’s one of my favorites, partially because it can be so hard to source for. If you include the currant carton into this design it’s an example of an tetradic color harmony. Tetradic harmonies is a harmony of 4 different points on the color wheel equally spaced.

It can be so challenging sourcing and combining so much color and contrast is one design. Want to know one of my secrets?

Tip 1: I balance my contrast of color by combing more saturated colors with highly desaturated colors. Instead of having every color at 100% saturation (which could be a little difficult on the eye) I allow one color to stand out in saturation and pull way way back the other colors in the design. This allows for a more balanced, yet impactful design that can utilize a more difficult color harmony but still be beautiful.

Tip 2: I use digital color wheels to help me understand the nuances of color and which color harmonies work well together. Even while at the flower market I might choose one flower to create a recipe off of then use the digital wheel to help decide which harmonies and colors might work well! Nerdy? Yes, but also so much fun if you have time to let yourself be inspired.

Tip 3: I let the flowers be my guide. I look for complexity of color within one single bloom or one single petal. I’ll use that one flower to create my entire palette off of!

Want to learn more about color harmonies, see a real arrangement tutorial and color harmonies for multiple designs?

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