This one started in my sketchbook.
I'm a little obsessive about color palettes before I commit to one — I'll spend hours filling in circles and half-circles with different shades just to watch how they behave next to each other, Josef Albers style. It's a habit I picked up from Lauren Wagner's Palette Perfect books.
The circle-in-a-square motif itself has an older thread too — I found a vintage Christian Dior scarf at a flea market in Paris, torn in two places but too beautiful to pass up. It also featured the nested circles but in a different layout. I've kept it ever since as a touchstone.
Palette Study No. 1 brings those threads together: a grid of circles in squares, each one a different color study — greens, pinks, purples, warm neutrals, ochre, and orange.
It's a simple idea, but the color play is what stops people mid-scroll.
If you care to learn a little bit more behind the scenes on this design, check out my blog post.
