The final project for my applied color class was creating an emotive color palette based on your experience of a song, movie, or other art form. This is inspired by Taylor Swift's rerecording of her 2010 album, "Speak Now."
My four color explorations with their proportion charts are included below. Let me know which one you would have chosen!
Artist statement
My emotive color palettes are based on Taylor Swift's recent rerecording of her 2010 album, "Speak Now." I don't know that I meet all the requirements to be considered a true "swiftie," but I'm a fan. I've been listening to her music since I was a kid, growing up with her as she evolved throughout the years. Despite that, the emotion I experienced listening to rerecordings of songs that were the soundtrack to my teenage years took me by surprise. Time collapsed in on itself and I was overwhelmed at the memory of just how big every emotion felt as a 16-year-old.
Music has a special way of drawing us back to moments in time, but in this case it wasn't just listening to an old favorite track—it was knowing that each recording was new and therefore reflecting back on itself in a way. It's still Taylor, and she's still singing the (largely) same words, but she's doing it as a 32-year old now. It's not nostalgic—it's moving forward in time, but with a deeper understanding of everything that entails.
I wanted to capture that sense of tenderness and grace for our younger selves in my colors and illustration this week. For the non-swifties out there, my image is a play on the album covers for the original and "Taylor's Version" recordings of "Speak Now." In both, she's wearing a purple dress and looking at the camera. I used shape, scale, and color to try to highlight the "bigness" of how everything feels at 16, contrasted with a softening, maturing adulthood.
