One of the nicest parts of running The Colour Palette Company is that I still get exactly the same feeling every time a new palette is installed or appears on the shelves of a museum or gallery shop.
Five years after I first shared the idea, it hasn’t become routine. If anything, it means even more.
Every new collaboration reminds me that what started as a simple way of celebrating places through colour has become something people genuinely want to share with visitors to their city. It never stops being a privilege when a museum or gallery asks if they can display and stock something I’ve created.
Our latest collaboration is with the wonderful Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery (RAMM) in Exeter.
Working together, we’ve created The Exeter Colour Palette, a collection of six colours inspired by the city’s architecture, history and everyday life. As always, the challenge was deciding what best represents a place through colour. Every city has hundreds of possibilities, but finding the six that feel unmistakably Exeter is where the real enjoyment begins.
The palette starts with Heavitree Breccia, the distinctive local red stone that has shaped Exeter for centuries, before moving through City Red, inspired by the city’s crest, Exeter City FC and the famous Red Coat Guides.
One of my favourite names has to be Kinky Pink, the official name for the bright pink walls at RAMM’s Queen Street entrance. It’s one of those details that locals know well, and visitors instantly remember.
From there the palette softens into Quayside Coffee, celebrating time spent beside Exeter’s historic canal and river, before arriving at Cathedral Green, the heart of the city and one of Britain’s great cathedral settings.
Finally there’s Valley Park Views, inspired by Exeter’s beautiful network of Valley Parks that bring so much green space into the city.
Looking back, I’m incredibly grateful for where these colour palettes have taken me. They’re now displayed in museums, galleries and independent shops across the UK, each one telling the story of a place through six carefully chosen colours.
I’m especially pleased that Exeter has now joined that growing collection.
If you’re visiting RAMM, you’ll now find The Exeter Colour Palette in the museum gift shop. I hope it encourages people to look at the city a little differently, because that’s always been the idea behind these palettes. Once you start noticing the colours that define a place, you never really stop.