From Birmingham to a national colour story

Five years ago, I posted a tweet that said: “Nobody asked me to create a Birmingham colour palette but I think the city deserves one so here it is. My gift to you all.”

That was it.

No business plan. No strategy. No five-year vision. I just wanted to create something that captured Birmingham in a different way.

I’d been looking closely at the city for years anyway, through my work in newspapers and marketing. So, I turned those observations into six colour swatches and shared them online.

The response completely caught me off guard.

People connected with it immediately. They recognised home. The palette tapped into memory and familiarity in a very direct way.

That single tweet became The Colour Palette Company.

Now, a few years later, I regularly travel around the UK and see our work in railway stations, museums, galleries, universities, offices, shopping centres and public buildings. The palettes now appear in places including Grand Central, The Custard Factory, Museum of Liverpool, Millennium Gallery and Tullie, in Carlisle.

I still find that strange in the best possible way.

Sometimes I’ll see somebody photographing an installation without them realising I created it. Occasionally someone messages me saying they unexpectedly discovered a palette while catching a train or visiting an exhibition. Those moments genuinely mean a lot because the work has always been rooted in observation and connection to place.

The process itself remains very hands-on. I spend a huge amount of time walking through places, researching local history, photographing details, noticing materials, light, architecture and typography. Certain colours keep appearing when you pay attention carefully enough.

Every town, city and cultural space carries its own palette already. I just enjoy revealing it.

What I’m most proud of is that people seem to understand the intention behind the work. The palettes aren’t random collections of attractive colours. They carry stories, memories, references and identity. Sometimes people instantly understand every swatch. Sometimes they debate them. Both reactions are good.

The Birmingham palette still means the most to me because it started everything. It proved that colour could communicate place in a way that felt immediate and personal. It also showed me that creative ideas with honesty behind them travel much further than expected.

There’s now much more to come from The Colour Palette Company. More public installations. More collaborations. More museums and cultural spaces. More unexpected locations.

And it all began with one tweet about Birmingham.