We could literally feel spring in the air that day. The familiar breeze that often made its way over the lake was much warmer than it had been some days before. We made our way to the lake shore, and as usual, sat on our favorite wooden bench admiring the boats that passed by. We giggled as the ducks did their best to stay sheltered from the waves that the passing boats produced. We marvelled at the brave locals that couldn’t resist taking their first dip of the season.Then, as the breeze picked up, we listened closely as the wind whistled through the leaves in the tree that surrounded us.
Why do trees spend the coldest season naked and then cover themselves for the summer?
The sound was magical, a little rustle that sounded almost like the leaves singing with joy. The children giggled excitedly. They watched intently as the warm breeze danced among the leaves. The branches and the leaves swayed gently to and fro together, moving to the beat of the breeze. The show continued until the breeze died down. Then, almost as in a game of musical chairs, the leaves stopped dead still and the tree was silent. It didn’t take long for the music to start again and for the leaves to resume their movement.
Shapes
It was important for us to capture the movement in both the leaves and the branches as we had observed them that day. We felt, after much experimentation, that we captured this through the use of form and shape. For the leaves, we opted for a single form and then played with varying its position, size and grouping to obtain a sense of heterogeneity. We felt that producing too many varying leaf forms would detract from the sense of movement we wanted so desperately to emphasise.
We had some troubled deciding how best to depict the branches. In reality, we had observed branches of varying thickness. However, we had also noticed that only the smaller, more delicate sprigs swayed in the wind.
The final design was quite far removed from reality, but we were confident that it captured the motion that we set out to portray.
Colors
Given the abstractness of the pattern we had created we felt a bit more liberty to play with bold, bright color combinations. We experimented with various green tones. This seemed like a natural starting point given that we were dealing with leaves afterall. But, we couldn’t quite find the right green. They all felt too synthetic, or just not playful enough. Finally, we identified a color somewhere between blue and green that seemed perfect. It not only captured the middle ground between sky(blue) and leaf(green) but it also acted as a perfect representation of the water which was a focal point that day.
For the leaves themselves we wanted to reflect reality even if we had decided to be more playful with the design. We have watched the leaves turn yellow and then red as autumn approaches, so we felt that these were colors to experiment with. Lying directly opposite one another on the color wheel, yellow and green obviously worked well together. They created maximum contrast and stability and produced a combination that was pleasing to the eye. Despite the somewhat unnatural shades we selected, green and yellow is a combination that can often be observed in nature. Perhaps for that reason it brings a harmonious feel to the print.
There was something about the red leaves, however, that we couldn’t move away from. Our experimentation showed that combining the red leaves with a yellow background produced something that spoke to the both of us. Providing a warmer characterization of the design, it fitted well with the mood we were trying to portray. And so, after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing we created both designs and decided to leave it upto you.
What do you think? Which version of Lehti do you prefer?
Visit our blog to read more about the inspiration and the creation of this design. Make sure to leave us a comment letting us know what you think of our patterns and our color combinations.
If you love this print, you can place an order on our website: Lehti, green or Lehti, red.
