16th January 2017

Technicolor dream team: Zetteler’s favourite colours

Anyone who’s ever been in the same postcode as the Zetteler studio will have seen its rainbow palette glowing in the distance. We love colour. We love it a lot. Aside from the obvious passion for working with graphic artists and bold designers — Camille Walala, Zuza Mengham, Studio EMMI and many more — we just love how they make us feel.

When G . F Smith told us they were launching a campaign to find the world’s favourite colour we, of course, were more than happy to share ours. Lucky for us they made it super easy. Anyone, from anywhere around the world, can visit worldsfavouritecolour.com, pick their cherished hue and share it using the unstoppable power of social media.

We’re going to be asking anyone and everyone we meet to share theirs, so to kick off here are team Zetteler’s top shades. Don't forget to tag #GFSmith #WorldsFavouriteColour in your social media posts to spread the love far and wide.

Sabine Zetteler

What's your favourite colour and why?

I love that intense exotic moment between pink, red and orange (as neon as possible) — it's wild, tropical and makes me feel warm.

What does the word colour mean to you?

Colour means interesting, character, diversity and fun. As someone getting increasingly deaf (I lost a huge percentage of my hearing at the age of 29) — what I see is becoming all the more vivid, important and is a huge source of my connection to the world. Bright colours fill me with joy.

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

Flamingos in Singapore. My aunt and uncle moved there when I was little (perhaps three?) and the flamingos we saw have never left my mind. They were otherworldly, borderline ridiculous and absolutely beautiful. It's never crossed my mind that they could be linked to my favourite colour, but perhaps they are....

Jodi Moss

What's your favourite colour and why?

Yellow is my favourite colour. It's the happiest colour I can think of. That's why I love it.

What does the word colour mean to you?

It relates to a really specific memory of mine. The first car I bought was a 1972 VW Beetle and it was bright sunshine yellow. She was called Barbie. Me and my dad restored her together and then when I moved to London I sold it to my dad for £1000 so I could move into a flat with some friends and afford a stash of beans and bread (toast) to see me through for a few months.

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

My most vivid memory of colour is the colour of the candles on my mum's birthday cake when I was about three. I remember feeling so grown up because I was allowed to blow them out and distinctively remember them being red, white and blue.

Milly Burroughs

What's your favourite colour and why?

I’d love to say black, but I know deep down it’s not actually colour. A delicious dark purple reminds me of Prince and goths, two things I’ve always had a big crush on.

What does the word colour mean to you?

Colour means expression, and subsequently freedom, and not seeing the world through a stifling grey haze.

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

I have a younger brother and when we were little we had coordinating green and red jumpers. His was red, the brightest I’ve ever seen, and his favourite colour for years after was that specific shade of telephone box rouge.

Dorothy Bourne

What's your favourite colour and why?

My favourite colour is red because it’s such a bold, happy and vibrant colour. When I wear red I feel like I’m going to do something really great.

What does the word colour mean to you?

Colour is how and why we see the world. Art has always been my biggest passion and a world without colour is a very sad one. It always blows my mind when I think about how different people might not see the same colours - how do I know if my blue is your blue?

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

I have this photograph at home of me painting when I was a child and I’m looking very serious, wearing a giant red overall, I have my easel set up, beret perched high on my head and I’m painting. One half of the picture is bright yellow, and the other half is covered in green and red stripes, with a giant purple mark with lots and lots of colourful dots in the middle. Not sure if its just because I have the photograph (along with original artwork of course), but basically me messing around with paints and crayons are my first most vivid colour memories.

Jess Meyer

What's your favourite colour and why?

I bloody love this blue. It’s like the old school hyperlink blue and reminds me of early computer moments. As a flat surface my eyes get lost in it. Unintentionally I’ve built up little hits of it everywhere at home. My favourite piece of artwork is a print with a geometric shape immersed in this blue. Every time I see the print it reminds me of what I think I’m meant to be doing in life. AND it’s the colour of my ring binders, which look ace contrasted with white spines.

What does the word colour mean to you?

Energy, light and change. I love bursts of colour, I love loads of colour and also I love no colour. Flat shades of white or grey can show as much colour to me as bold, BRIGHT colours. Colour can be anything, everything and nothing.

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

I think my first memory of colour has to be from growing up at a 10 day family festival called Campus. We went every year from when I was two until I was eleven and when I think “first memory” or “most vivid memory” of colour all I can see is tents, tents and more tents. In the camping areas and in the main festival area where there were lots of big top tents. And various circus training and performances and mask making activities and flags. Everyone was in festival gear from small humans to grown up ones. 10 days of solid festival gear, every year, for 10 years. Yes. That’s it. It was well colourful!

Becky Morrison

What's your favourite colour and why?

My favourite colour is a pure, pina-colada-in-the-Caribbean pink. It reminds me of a little pair of cotton shorts I used to wear on holiday when I was little that got sun-bleached the colour of a Cuban beach hut. Sunshine, freedom, happiness.

What does the word colour mean to you?

Colour to me means ways of seeing. It blows my mind that shades look different through different eyes - remember the white/gold, black/blue dress meme? Madness. It also means mood. Nothing evokes a particular atmosphere better than a deliberately-painted wall. I’m currently into pale grey and powdery Acne-pink pairings in my room for ultra-zen bedtime vibes.

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

It's a super early one (no-one ever believes that I can remember being a baby but I'm sure I can). My mum used to sit me up on the work surface in a baby bouncer while she made dinner and I vividly remember the saccharine purple of a giant glass bottle of Ribena that used to live by the sink. I still love Ribena.

Katie Logue

What's your favourite colour and why?

I love green! It's hard to know exactly why but I think it's because it reminds me of summer days spent outside, walking through beautiful forests or enjoying picnics with friends. If I'm lucky enough to own my own home at some point I want a plant-filled room painted entirely green. In my head this looks beautiful but we'll see...

What does the word colour mean to you?

For me colour represents life and culture. Bright beautiful colours can have such a great effect on your mood. I also love how important colour is in different cultures and contexts and am fascinated by the rich connotations and meanings of certain colours.

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

I remember when I about five and I was picking out one of those padded velvet hairbands that had girl's names across them. The writing reminded me of cake icing and I remember spending such a long time deliberating which colour combination I liked the best.

Martyn White

What's your favourite colour and why?

Green! I love it because it is the colour of nature, it is (usually) fresh and always makes me smile.

What does the word colour mean to you?

It is my connection to calm, nature and more importantly, olives!

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

Red, my earliest memory is of one of my parent's cars being a really striking and vivid red.

Andy Dunn

What's your favourite colour and why?

I'm all about blue...Blue Note, Jazz, Yves Klein Blue, Joni Mitchell's Blue, Betty Blue, Billy Blue Hat...erm ok maybe not Billy Blue Hat. Blue is the colour of Denim, the ocean, bright, clear days. It just always works - fail safe, solid, eternal and COOL.

What does the word colour mean to you?

Colour is how we see the beauty in the world. I love black and white photography but if I had to choose I'd always put a colour film in my camera. The temperature of light is the most seductive thing - whether its the warm, woozy, golden hour hues or hard, cool, slanting light of a winter morning its often where the emotion and feeling of a scene comes from. Also people and their skin is most interesting thing to look at for me and people aren't black and white. Apart from olden days people from before colour was invented...but they died out, like dinosaurs.

What's your first or most vivid memory of colour?

A vivid early memory of colour was Denim blue of Shakin Stevens' record sleeves in the 80s...I wanted that jacket and I wanted that quiff. And I got them both!

Visit worldsfavouritecolour.com to share yours.

#GFSmith #WorldsFavouriteColour

Zetteler HQ