Prologue: The Gardens:

One thing that urged me to do this project, as well as the most important “Prompt” that guided me, was the flowers I saw right at the street level of my apartment. The Stuytown Community had these bushes occupied with various flowers, (or is it simply birds who dropped all the seeds there) and for most months of a year these flowers bloom, giving a hint of an unexpected tune to the dull community (with 2 dozen blocks of building in the very same brick) I though highly of these flowers and the colors they offered, and then I would think then, would my later study become an origin for this imagery “Garden”? Is just, we, the residents, would be planting the colors of our favorites, in the very city we live.

The flowers I photographed years ago:

So it is decided, the “Garden”, of color we farm…


Project Brief

This is a multi-component research based and experimental project, of the color variations of NYC communities.

Color is one of the most direct impression of an environment; so a person in a certain area must have a memory of how the place is, through colors. He might also have a gist of how the place could be, likewise through colors.

Just like a Gardener selecting and handling the plantations in the Garden, the people may also select and suggest their plans of their communities, through offering a set of “colors” according to their life-hood experiences and preferences.

*Project Scope-  Why NYC?

I believe it’s not simply the reason that I lived in NYC that locates my project in this specific city. Here are three other reasons for which I made this decision: 1. It’s a city without a color them; it’s diverse; 2. It’s city that changes so fast, offering the stage for all these colors; 3. Per NYC law, certain buildings are subjected to exterior maintenance or repaint every 5 years, offering a chance for possible community shifts. (Though within this project it’s mostly experimental)


-What may influence the community color

This project is not merely a color palette extraction: many factors should be considered before a community, a block’s color can be decided:

-Weather / Seasonal / Time. The uncontrollable factor (shown, but not studied)
-The vehicles / private stores  /  banners… (changeable, but not regulated factors)
-The building exterior / Public facilities (semi-fixed factors regulated by communities)
-The community’s preferences (that may affect the future)
-The sprays, paintings

The natural influences and human factors:



Case Study: K-Town

I’m going to take K-Town as an example, this night-time “light house” located in midtown, my backyard “canteen”.


* Coding: deciding the colors

I utilized the following script to rapidly abstract the colors out of an image material. Though this project would take many things into consideration and the “colors” weigh differently based on their categories, this algorithm would free me from receptively manual decisions to a large extent.


What do resident’s think of their community(’s color)?

While for the previous part I (well, and the script) were busy colorizing K-Town and other places, the outcome focuses on the reality: what the community looks like, now. I also want to explore another aspect here: How does the same community expresses itself to its residents? For this question, I’d need the answers from the real residents now. I’m taking Chinatown as an example.

I made a questionnaire based on the HSB selection method:


And the interactive questionnaire is good through all devices:


The result I received, from the samples:


And the result, the imagery Chinatown differs from the realistic version: 


There is some differences as we can see, between these two sets. And this is mostly justified. People may select an uncommon color for a lot of reasons. And while all reasons are good, all decisions legit, there are still somehow we could do…

(I wish not to start a color tyranny, but a color democracy.)


The Outcome: The Gardener Platform:


The brand identity:

I composed and four-leaves-cloves with the heart shape, and applied a greyscale base palette. (colorized by the actual color selection)


Our goals:


Some of the platform pages designs:
(the questionnaire:)


(The favorite page dynamic:)


(The “community Color”:)


A advertisement promotion the platform and concept:

https://files.cargocollective.com/c2070928/Gardener-1min-ad.mp4



Our future:

As we said, no mandatory things, but there could be something interesting happening to us soon…

(A better color decision...)


(An occasional city light surprise...)


(Or probably...)


There are little limitations to the thesis. The city is free, the people or the "planters" are free... The shift may take place elsewhere besides NYC, yet where it will be? We shall wait & see.