8/17/18: Now that we’re headed home, I have been hunting around for paint colors to change up our bedrooms, and I have encountered some ridiculous color names. I know the people in charge of such things must run out of inspiration sometimes, and I have been somewhat entertained by some of their more obscure efforts (Hannah Banana, Careless Whispers,  and Baby’s Mittens, to name a few). But finding today’s beautiful thing feels like a great relief to me.

Author and artist Ingrid Sundberg (she of the orchid hair) created Color Thesaurus, a compendium of the perfect evocative names for some common colors, and she’s singing the song of my people. Here’s what inspired her:

“I love to collect words. Making word lists can help to find the voice of my story, dig into the emotion of a scene, or create variety.

“One of my on-going word collections is of colors. Having a variety of color names at my fingertips helps me to create specificity in my writing. I can paint a more evocative image in my reader’s mind if I describe a character’s hair as the color of rust or carrot-squash, rather than red.

“So for fun, I created this color thesaurus for your reference. Of course, there are plenty more color names in the world, so, this is just to get you started.”

Sundberg’s color names really resonated with me, and as I read them, I found myself repeatedly exclaiming “Yes!” She has a real talent for nailing just the right object to bring to mind a color, and I sincerely hope she keeps going. The paint industry should really take a page from her book.

You can follow Sundberg on her website.