Interview with Chloé Douglas: Designer

Monday, June 27, 2011

Interview with Chloé Douglas: Designer

We just posted about how incredible pinners are and Chloé Douglas is absolutely no exception. She wrote us one of the nicest emails I’ve ever read and after replying with the big thank you it deserved, I followed her links to discover Chloé has a ridiculously gorgeous blog devoted to color and was one of the designers for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. After that, a pinterview and a “Follow All” was inevitable and we hope you’ll read on to get some stories on designing Olympic medals and Chloé’s heroes.

Hi Chloé, can you tell us a little about yourself?

Thanks for asking! I’m a designer from Vancouver with a computer almost always surrounded by heaps of paper-cuttings. I love a fusion of technology and hand-crafted detail. Oh, and I also use far too many exclamation points in business correspondence. Most of all, I am madly in love with colour and have been for as long as I can remember. One of my first ever memories was seeing a paint swatch wall at the hardware store. It was true love at first sight! After years of covering my desktop with colour-focused images, I decided to make a blog devoted to the subject five months ago and thus ‘plenty of colour’ was born. Long story short, my desert island item would probably be a Pantone guide. I guarantee I would build the most colourful raft you’ve ever seen!

Vancouver 2010 Olympics images, courtesy of Chloé Douglas

You were a designer for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics - what was it like working on such an enormous project? Any good stories?

So many stories! Let’s go out for drinks? Honestly, working on the Olympics for over three years was a spectacular, all-encompassing experience. I was so lucky to be part of the small design team that created the icons of the Games – the torch, medals, mascots, uniforms, books, etc.

pinterest_vancouver2010olympics_chloe02

The ‘Look of the Games’ was our biggest project because it was the design system and essence for the entire event from hockey rinkboards to street banners to keychains to planes. An unbelievable opportunity to create the backdrop for historic moments as well as representing Vancouver/Canada to the world. I loved the huge range of projects I got to use our Look design on, from making handmade papercraft details like flowers for an official program to creating modern products like snowboards, merchandise and video games.

One of my lead projects and probably my biggest love was the medals’ design. Every single medal was a unique crop of an Aboriginal artwork by Corrine Hunt so all of the athletes were unique yet connected. Olympic medals are sacred so it was an honour to help create something that symbolizes decades of work and sacrifice by athletes. The project also gave me the chance to work side-by-side with Leo Obstbaum, the Vancouver 2010 design director and my mentor. Devastatingly, Leo passed away 6 months before the Games. I am forever thankful for our countless late nights spent testing thread colours so the ribbons would “glow,” perfecting each medal crop, pondering shades of bronze… It took a couple of years but no detail was missed and I’m really proud of the end result. I’m rambling but overall, designing for the Games was definitely an enormous project but luckily overflowing with inspiration, passion and richly talented people.

Your blog is pages upon pages of vibrant eye-candy: apart from Plenty of Colour, what are your major inspirations?

Ready for an infuriating answer? I’m inspired by absolutely everything! Really! I often find myself overwhelmed by inspiration which is probably why I don’t sleep much. Okay, to be more specific, I would say Vancouver is a huge inspiration to me as it is tremendously multicultural and is a unique fusion of urban life, ocean and mountains. Colour is the common thread that inspires me and I love finding beautiful palettes in unexpected places. It’s amazing the colours you can see in compost buckets and alleyways! Interior design, stainless steel, desk supplies, woodgrain, India, art deco, neon, vintage sequins, light fixtures, embroidered type, pattern, geometry, papercraft, paint swatch walls… I could truly go on for days and days. There is a reason Pinterest is the first site I visit in the morning and the last I visit at night!

Okay…what’s your favorite color? And you have to pick one!

Gulp. I can’t! That’s like picking a favourite child! I have a love for all hues but, twisting my arm, I would say I am most attracted to the brightest colours in the crayon box. I love fuchsia, turquoise, vibrant purple…

I love the section on your blog titled Colour Hero which features many artists; if you could invite 5 people to pin, who would you get in touch with and why?

I would love to see what artist and writer Douglas Coupland would pin. I think he is a genius and I would love to see what makes him tick. He has a wall of embroidery thread spools in his house for goodness sake!

Marc Webb has a fantastic eye for colour that is evident in all of his music videos as well as 500 Days of Summer. I am a huge fan of Kate Spade and their vibrant, colour-focused brand so I would definitely invite creative director Deborah Lloyd to pin. Another colour hero is Grace Coddington, creative director for Vogue magazine. Her gorgeous fashion editorials would probably translate into some jaw-dropping fashion boards. Kanye West is a true innovator and his old blog showed a real eye of colour and art. I can’t even imagine what he would pin!

Drinks are on us if Team Pinterest visits Vancouver: thanks so much for the stories, Chloé and looking forward to the colorful things you’ll pin!