Sette Design: Colorful Cities

Juzcar, Spain gorgeous blue!

If you follow this blog at all you know that I love color. I have this wonderful friend, whom I will call Jo, he has an original and creative mind and he knows I go crazy for color. Jo sent me this article on Juzar in Andalusia Spain. They painted the whole town a light shade of blue, for the Smurf movie and the town’s people loved it so much that they voted and decided to keep it blue. The mayor Fernandez said, it has given a "Boost to the local economy, it’s increased our happiness, our dreams and our levels of employment. "

Juzcar, Spain from a distance plus 4,000 litres of paint

here's the before shot

Man, I just love that!

The uniformity of the color makes the design splendid.

"La Bocca" Buenos Aires, Argentina
immigrated by Italians and modeled after Genoa

When I was in Art School at Pratt in NYC, it was deep in the ghetto of Brooklyn at that point and I wanted to get involved in painting something that would help the community. My roommate who was a tough, reality type girl from the South Bronx said, “If you do that the people will just go and pee on it”. I was pretty deluded about her comment at the time, but now looking back I think well they might pee on it happily and then eventually they might stop peeing on it. Back then I wanted to do something small. These cities show, do the whole town in color and it will have an impact.

When I first went to Lucca, Italy, I remember being so impressed that the whole town could agree to paint their shutters green.

Lucca, Italy ahh such tranquility

Lucca, Italy

Bo-Kaap Cape Town South Africa
this shows all colors can work together
British and Dutch influenced architecture

Williamstad, Netherlands

Guanjuato, Mexico

Lima, Peru
Spanish Baroque, French Neoclassism, Art Nouveau Buildings

Here’s a great quote.

“Reform the environment, stop trying to reform the people. They will reform themselves if the environment is right.” Buckminster Fuller

Izamal, Mexico in the Yucatan "The Yellow City"

I have a Norwegian stepfather and from the moment he came into our lives he started painting the rooms in our house, soft shades of blue and pale green, lavender. Of course, I had already painted my room by myself by the time I was 10! Our house was very open and you could see all the varying colors through archways and doorways, it brought such peace and joy to our family.

Longyearbyen, Norway

color works in the cold and the hot climates

Bryggen, Norway
I love all the shades of red

Now, I believe that color can be felt and have an influence on the tiny personal scale of life and on the larger environment of a town that leads to confidence, a strong sense of identity, pride and happiness.