#WorldsFavouriteColour: Duroselle, Ilori, Arora

As G . F Smith’s World’s Favourite Colour campaign rolls on we are becoming increasingly obsessed with discovering the emotionally charged tales of individuals falling in love with colour and all things it represents. Recent trends have seen graphic artists and designers go back to basics and embracing the impact of bold blocks of primary colours, shying away from the Scandi-inspired pastel hues that have become so commonplace in our homes and wardrobes.

Returning to London fresh off the back of his Design Indaba experience, and having exhibited as part of Design Undefined #2, Yinka Ilori has been one of Zetteler’s stand out humans of the past 12 months. His use of colour includes contemporary takes on the traditional concept of furniture and a refreshing approach to storytelling. Marine Duroselle, another incredible Design Undefined alumni, is a French freelance graphic designer who lives and works in East London. Her international upbringing and diverse cultural experiences have challenged her to find different mediums to experiment with and vibrant outcomes for a wide range of briefs. Her clients include V&A, Design Museum, Imperial War Museum, Jewish Museum, Urban Outfitters and more. Kangan Arora is a London-based contemporary design studio, specialising in vivid print and interior-fashion textiles. Identified as one of “20 names to know” by Elle Magazine, she has worked with a whole spectrum of clients, including Urban Outfitters, Heal’s and Southbank Centre, creating everything from fashion pieces to graphic homewares.

We asked the trio of colour champions to talk to us about their favourite shades and what the word colour means to them. 

Marine Duroselle

What's your favourite colour and why?

This is the impossible question to answer! I don’t think I ever had a favourite colour and seasons tend to have a big influence of my colours tastes and associations. But at the moment I am really attracted to “natural” colours. One could be a “terracotta” tint.

What does the word colour mean to you?

The universal language of joy!

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

I might be around five years old, my family was living in Lima, Peru, at that point and I was going to nursery school there. One day our teacher asked us to make a mask for "Inti Raymi” (Quechua for "sun festival”). I remember her handing out the most vivid and colourful stack of papers to work with, I was totally mesmerised! A feeling of happiness, uncontrollable excitement and endless possibilities opened up to me at that moment. And still to this day when I get to work with colour this very precise sensation tickles me!

Yinka Illori

What's your favourite colour and why?

Pink because it reminds me of my childhood.

What does the word colour mean to you?

Colours to me means life, happiness and family.

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

First vivid memory of colour was being at a Nigerian party in a community hall surrounded by my relatives wearing colourful Nigerian clothes and dancing.

Kangan Arora

What's your favourite colour and why?

I love most colours but my constant favourite is yellow — not too orange, not too lemon — a zingy sunshine yellow. It never fails to lift my spirits.

What does the word colour mean to you?

For me, I can’t disassociate the word colour from the act of mixing ink in the studio for screen printing. When you print one colour over another, a kind of magic happens. So, in some ways colour is like Magic.

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

I think it would have to be my first visit to Pondicherry and Auroville in South India back in 2006. It was the first time I was truly aware of colour (when you grow up in India, you kind of take it for granted, it’s everywhere but you almost don’t acknowledge it) I was interning at The Colours of Nature — a small textiles company that specialise in natural dyeing. Working on their new look-book, I photographed their products in the surrounding environment. Indigo dyed garments against tonal blue washed walls, madder dyed products against terracotta and brick and so on. I noticed spaces bathed in the colour of the fabric canopies hanging above them, vast expanses of sides of buildings washed in a single tone and slightly chalky colours, then juxtaposed with completely unexpected hues from the buildings next door. It was a never-ending colour palette that came together completely by accident. 

Visit worldsfavouritecolour.com to share yours.

#GFSmith #WorldsFavouriteColour