It started with the color I wanted to paint the walls of my room with. Of course I wanted blue. But something not too blue. I ended up choosing a very icy aquamarine (as noted by the man who did the painting), but continued to be fascinated by the remote regions of cyan.
Then I discovered Tiffany Blue and its reputation of all things luxurious and romantic. It is Tiffany & Co.’s official color (Pantone Matching System number 1837, the founding year of the company!), whose petite boxes contain strands of silver and drops of diamonds. Though for me, having the cute boxes would be enough.
More than that, Tiffany Blue is unlike other colors associated with famous companies. Coca-Cola red is just plain old red; it could very well be the same red of McDonald’s, Lego, or Ferrari. Tiffany’s ability to build a brand around a color was so successful that American Express more or less imitated it:
Many years ago, I remember Paul Rand telling me about a project he was working on for American Express. He created a series of sketches to demonstrate potential color variations for their platinum credit card, and one of them was instantly recognizable — almost jarringly so — as the trademark aquatic blue of Tiffany & Co. It seemed kind of sneaky, this notion of using a color that so instantly conjured the identity of another company: but that, Mr. Rand assured me, was exactly the point. Tiffany blue said expensive, rich, elite: to cue the audience through the inflection of this particular shade was genius.
Source: Into the Pink, Design Observer
Armed with that delight over such a color, I created a Sandbox Design in February, on a whim, named Tiffany Blue (of course). For the unfamiliar, Sandbox is a platform for creating themes in WordPress. Rather than starting from scratch, the theme author only needs to touch the CSS—much like the concept of the CSS Zen Garden—because all the template files and functions have been created.
A few months after I learned that a Sandbox Designs Competition would take place. I decided I would enter my Sandbox theme just for the fun of it. The deadline was last July 29.
Out of 46 entries, Tiffany Blue emerged as a runner-up! Which was a bit surprising, because when I inspected the live preview of my design, I saw several problems I hadn’t anticipated, like nested sidebar items and numerous page tabs. (I immediately tweaked the CSS locally and scolded myself for being careless.)
Congratulations to all the winners and participants! My bets took the top spots, so I’m glad. I hope more people design using Sandbox; it’s good fun and a great way to learn CSS.
For now I’ll leave you with the “official” opening of Stellify’s test lab blog: Asterisk. It originally had generic content, during which I created the black design for Stellify.net, but now I’ve transformed it into a meme blog so that it won’t be stagnant.
Update: Here’s the download page for Tiffany Blue. Mind you, the file at Sndbx.org is already outdated.
congratulations!!! :)
yihaaa! congrats ia-chan! XD was i the first person to see tiffany blue? i knew i saw a winner back then, mweheh.
that is puuuurty ^_^
@Mae: Thank you very much!
@Corsarius: Probably! Sipsip ka! >:P
@Jorge: Haha, thanks! I think this site’s background is currently too dark for the screenshot though. :P
[...] She’s no other than Sophia Lucero, whose Tiffany Blue got the nod of the judges. Congrats, Ia! I hope this provides you with an impetus to create more free blog designs. [...]
ia said:
but of course! ;)
Congratulations! I love the header made up of negative space.
[...] Four down, 22 to go. I’m being merciful by not boring you further with another bibliophilic side-quest — plastic-covering around 50 books and ten new magazines in my library! By the way, do congratulate Ia for making the country proud in a recent blog design competition. [...]
@Corsarius: Uh-huh. >:P
@Ian: Congratulations to you too! Love your work.
Congratulations ia! Great job with the design and layout. You make us proud to be Filipinos & pinoy bloggers.
More power & God bless! :)
Hi Ia. A big gratz for placing in the competition. Feel proud ako to be a Pinoy blogger. I tried downloading your theme kasi gusto kong gamitin sa blog ko (may theme switcher ako). Pero hindi siya puwede kasi wala raw template . Can you help me with this? Thanks a lot and I really liked your design. It’s classy.
@Jaypee: Thank you. Okay at least the CCrux post doesn’t feel as silly now that somebody else mentions it in the Filipino blogger context. @_@
@Ella: Emailed you the details. For everyone, Tiffany Blue is a “skin” to the Sandbox theme. Please read up more about it before downloading my theme. I’ve also updated this post for details about downloading Tiffany Blue. :)
[...] The Filipina is an achiever in the fields dominated by men. Who says Filipinas are just singers and actresses? The Filipina is also actually outstanding in the field where intellectual men are most likely the competitors such as in the field of science and technology. A Filipina, Sophia Lucero, for example, was announced last August 7 as runner up in the Sandbox Designs Competition which was participated in by a number of blog designers worldwide. Carmen Velasquez, on the other hand, is a Filipina who has been enlisted in the American Men and Women of Science for discovering 32 new species and one genus of parasites in local fishes in the Philippines and if you have been born prematurely and was kept in an incubator, thank Fe del Mundo, an outstanding Filipina whose studies have led to the invention of the incubator and jaundice relieving devices. Not to be ignored is the fact that 97 percent of the businesses in the Philippines have women in senior management positions showing that the Filipina is an achiever in the fields traditionally dominated by men. [...]
Nice one ia :) Though again, it confuses me. Why do girls know a lot of colors??? My friend once corrected me when I said her bag is color blue-green; she said it was TEAL.
And now you have Tiffany Blue! Lol!
Geo, maybe because we’re more immersed in interests that make us aware about the variations in colors. And there really *is* a difference. But blue-green is a pretty good call from a guy, I would say. ;)
Wow galing, congrats!
[...] Links: Demo | Theme URI [...]
[...] Obviously, T-Mobile has pulled a Tiffany Blue. You can’t blame them for laying claim to a most effective method of brand recall. The only difference is T-Mobile now has the right to sue any entity in the same industry that uses magenta. And that industry, the telecommunications industry, is a big one: from telephones to mobile phones to the Internet. This could even move over to all other industries if the company becomes famous enough. [...]
[...] Tiffany Blue is a theme for WordPress created by Filipino designer Ia Lucero, inspired by the official color of Tiffany & Co. It started with the color I wanted to paint the walls of my room with. Of course I wanted blue. But something not too blue. I ended up choosing a very icy aquamarine (as noted by the man who did the painting), but continued to be fascinated by the remote regions of cyan. [...]
there is no PMS 1837. this story is a myth.