Modern Colors of Japan: Japanese Color Harmony Dictionary: The Complete Guide for Designers and Graphic Artists (Over 3,300 Color Combinations and Patterns with CMYK and RGB References)

This is a vivid book of color names and descriptions arranged into 127 pleasant and exciting themes. In addition, thousands of sample color combinations are presented. That’s a basic description of what the book contains. I’ll try to convey here briefly how it all feels…Many of the colors are based on foods, flowers, and other fragrant things. For example a red named Rooibos Tea, Shrimp Pink, Mahogany, Cacao, Mustard Gold and a bluish green named Nile River are parts of the nine colors that make up Recipe 057: African Dresses. Some colors are named for places: Raffles Hotel brown, Zoo Forest green, and Sentosa Beach blue for Recipe 098: Little India, Singapore. Others are more specific to Japan: Somen Noodles white, Yukata blue and a pale sea green called The Color of a Wind Bell’s Ring for 078: Summer in Japan. Almost all of the 127 themes feature colors like this, and that is very inspiring to me. I like to use all of my senses in connection with colors (kind of a controlled synesthesia, perhaps). These kinds of sensory connections are featured in my own artwork.I stumbled upon Teruko Sakurai’s work when I was searching for more books similar to Naomi Kuno’s Practical Color Combinations. At that point, Sakurai’s books were only in Japanese, but I bought them anyway, even though my Japanese was limited. (I have since learned a great deal more Japanese, in large part thanks to translating these books for myself.) A few small details have been lost in the Tuttle translation, but overall it’s thrilling to now be able to read the books easily.These books have functioned as lists of good and interesting things in life for me. They’ve helped me overcome boredom and indecision. Each day I pick a different theme and do something fun with it. (I have actually written companion books of lists that pair up music, food, clothing, books, movies and perfumes with each of the color schemes.) This book is not only about Japan, it’s about the good things in life in general. Sorry for my rambling. I hope you’ll check the sample and give the book a chance. It’s so much better than most other books in English about colors.

This is a beautiful addition to my collection of art books. As a designer, this book helps me find harmonious color stories.

It helps me a lot because I am very bad at picking colors 🙃

I love this book full of wonderful colors and swatches ,Pictures and logos tips on colors and color wheelI needle felt ,color and learning to Draw, I find the book is highly useful for me. I got both books . I personally think they are the best books for crafters . in my option.

Wenn man nicht so recht weiß,wie Farben zusammen wirken, ist dieses Buch sehr hilftreich. Das einzige, was ich nicht so toll finde ist die Benennung der Farben. Da hätten einheitliche Namen für nahezu die selbe Nuance einer Farbe besser geholfen.