Systems of COLOR
Academic Brown
1e1207
Flannel Red
8d1f16
Goldenrod
f39704
Naples Yellow
bfa22c
Forest Green
406135
Ceruleus Atlanticus
4d3255
Indian Paintbrush
a5330a
Raspberry
da3c56
Ivory Cream
f1f0cf
Lemon Yellow
f9d34f
Olive Green
7e8045
Aquamarine
3a62b3
*All of these colors are liable to change (except the yellows. I feel pretty set on those.
**Don't make fun of me if you think these colors are ugly. I'm literally colorblind.
I've always loved messing around with colors. In 2020, when I was working on my 8-Bit Explained video series and just getting into pixel art for the first time, I spent hours combing through color palettes on lospec.com, looking for the perfect combination of complementary shades that could work for any project. Every time I've gone through and re-designed this website, I've been primarily motivated by wanting to change the color scheme. Over time, I've found different colors that work for me, and this page is a sort of shrine to those.
There are many ways that I use color offline, in my daily life. In my calendar (yes, I still use a paper calendar), the days of the week are color-coded into a rainbow, so that on my habit tracker (also on paper), weeks blend together into a seamless band of hues.
The months of the year, too, are organized by color. When I write in my journal (you get the idea), I take a thick marker and color the top rim of the page with the month's color, so that I can see at a glance how much I've written in each month.
At the start of every calendar year, I decide what the color of the new year will be. 2025 is forest green. These colors frequently don't correspond with any of the colors in my unified 'color palette' as seen above, I just pick whatever looks nice at the time. Unlike the days of the week or the months of the year, the color of the year is not something I generally think about on a day-to-day basis. But when I'm buying things (shoes, a battery pack for my phone, a notebook, etc), I always check to see if it's available in something close to my color for the year. That way, when I look at the objects around me, I can frequently tell you when I purchased them just based on what color they are! I've been doing this since 2019, which was lime green.
Days of the week
Over time, I've slowly been working towards my eventual goal of there being a unique color for each month of the year. I've made progress (for instance, it used to be that both November and March were forest green, but now March is sort of a mint color.) But have yet to track down any more perfect-match shades. If you have any recommendations, feel free to send them my way!
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall
Jan.
Feb.
Mar.
Apr.
May
Jun.
Jul.
Aug.
Sep.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
While it may not technically help me be that much more productive, I find it incredibly satisfying to have a unified color scheme across my various analog life-planning tools. On the far left is a piece of my habit tracker, which utilizes my color-coded system for the days of the week and the months of the year to keep me in the right place. Beneath this text box is a page out of my planner, which utilizes the same days-of-the-week color system. I chose a particularly busy week to fool everyone into thinking I'm a super productive person. And to the right you can see a top-down view of one of my hand-made notebooks, the pages of which have been color-coded according to the month of the year that each entry was written in. A little insane, perhaps this all is, but I'm having too much fun to stop!!