Softer than Soft Summer
If you felt that the information about colour harmony in this series of articles is radically different from the concept of Seasons, you are right. And it’s about to get even stranger.
All the previous articles were about how I uncovered how colour harmony actually works, and how that led to developing the Sphere palettes. After nearly three years of research, testing and calibrating, I had the full range of clear colours, pastels, darks and neutrals for all 45 Sphere palettes, in a new and easy to use design.
Nevertheless, I was faced with a problem: all the clear colours, pastels, darks and neutrals didn’t cover the entirety of colour space. They only added up to just over half. There was a lot left.
These colours were too soft to put into any palette as a clear colour, not even a Soft. At the same time, they were too dark to make a pastel, too light to make a dark, and too colourful to make a neutral. I called them ‘the interior gap’, because these colours sat at the centre of my colour charts, surrounded by the clears, pastels, darks and neutrals. And also because these very greyed colours are typically found in interior design (but also in a lot of clothing these days – bright colours have largely disappeared from retail).
So why can’t I put these in a Soft palette? Because these colours still look greyed, even in a Soft palette. Yes, there is a lot of grey in a Soft palettes, especially when you compare to the other tonalities. But on the right person, someone who actually needs the Soft tonality, their own colours don’t look grey. They look bright, happy, fresh, clear, clean, rich and full-bodied. Which is exactly the point of a clear colour – not too bright or too soft, just right to be colourful. When there is still grey coming up, it means they don’t belong in the Softs as clear colours. They were sub-Soft colours.
Where did the interior gap colours belong? I had no idea. There were so many possibilities. They might make their own softer palettes, separate from the palettes based on human colour interactions that I was making. Because I had my hands full trying to sort out the clear colours, pastels, darks and neutrals, I had only one choice here: to set the interior gap aside for the moment, and research it later.
After several years of intense work on the Sphere palettes, they were done. I moved on to prepare my studio gear for working with Sphere instead of Seasons. And there, it was the makeup that confronted me with the interior gap again.
There were many eyeshadows, particularly the ‘colourful’ ones like blue or green that were softer than my Soft clear colours. And there were lip colours like that, too. Under 12Seasons, I would have put them all in Soft Summer or Soft Autumn without thinking twice. This time, that wasn’t good enough.
So back to research I went. It took a couple months of puzzling, testing, observing, and learning to look at colours once again, plus some hard core theorising. But I ended up with a working model for the sub-Soft, interior gap colours.
It turns out that they were several groups of tonal classes, just like pastels and darks are tonal classes. Thinking of them as a kind of grey-based ‘pastel’, helped me realise what these colours were supposed to look like in the context of a palette. Because you are going to feel this coming: of course they went into every single palette.
Which means that a lot of the sub-Soft colours that are parked in (mostly) Soft Summer, actually belong in a lot of other tonalities – including the Brights. How incredibly ironic!
If this breaks your brain, well so it did mine. Much like how I felt when I realised there were Autumn-like colours in literally every palette, except this was even worse. Because there still remained a tenuous link between the Seasons and Spheres. Reconstructing the vibes of a Season from the closest Sphere analog was still obvious, even if you had some extra Spring-like clear colours and Autumn-like darks to play around with.
The best example are the Bright palettes. These have the brightest colours, the iciest pastels and the darkest darks, plus a stark black and white to pair it all with, and that still evokes various kinds of Winter. Whichever colours you pair together, the high contrast and the bright colours will still feel Winter-like.
However, apparently we now have sub-Soft colours everywhere, including in the Bright palettes. Which means that we can choose to ignore the clear class and the extremes of the white/cream and (coal-)black range, and have enough very greyed colours left to create combinations that resemble Soft Summer.
With the last link between Sphere and the Seasons broken, I can only conclude that there is very little scientific basis for Seasonal palettes as tools for finding colour harmony. I’m not saying there is no theoretical basis for personal colour analysis. The whole point of Sphere is to objectively determine which colours harmonise with a person.
But Seasonal palettes should not be used for personal colour analysis. They are definitely better than random colour choices, but not by much.
On the flip side, the new sub-Soft tonal class creates even more opportunity to discover, create, play with and enjoy colour. It’s been so much fun going to the thrift store and trying on colours that I never knew I could wear. Suddenly, I am no longer frustrated that retail has gotten so bland -it’s either Soft colours or neutrals that you can buy these days. With my Bright-Light palette, that just left neutrals, I used to believe. Instead, I get to partake in the softer colours and wear mauve, heather and soft willow green – and my skin still looks radiant and clear!
Even better, the sub-Soft category red and pink makes the perfect daytime lipstick, a subtle lip colour that creates a classic ‘my lips but better’ effect. Especially for brighter palettes, which only have their bold reds and pinks as lipstick options, plus their rather dramatic darks, it’s a very welcome option. It was the only thing that I felt was missing from my makeup bag.
So while the sub-Soft colours broke the last link between the Seasons and Sphere, it’s been a huge step forward. The interior gap was the last piece of the puzzle. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to finally understand colour harmony. I am really looking forward to learning more about these classes and calibrating them for each palette.
IMPORTANT: The sub-Soft colours are NOT YET included in the Sphere palettes. Partly because there is no space left, and partly because I still have to calibrate the colours for every temperature and tonality. With 45 palettes total, that’s going to take quite a bit of time. Therefore, I will make the sub-Soft colours for each palette available as a complementary set at a later date.
Reason 9: There are sub-Soft colours in Soft Summer and Soft Autumn, which instead belong in every palette as a separate tonal classes.
So instead: There was no space or time to include these tonal classes in the Sphere palettes, but they will be made available as an extension set at a later date.
With the rather dramatic statement that there is very little scientific basis for seasonal colour palettes, I can imagine that many of you are asking: but don’t these colours occur in nature? Doesn’t the fact that Seasonal palettes capture how nature looks throughout the year, validate their existence as natural and harmonious combinations of colour?
That will be the topic for our next article.