Lydia's Color Palette

Lydia broke her fall. It happened in slow motion. She thought of the six million dollar man; the odd noise that Steve Austin made when he jumped over something. That was not the noise she made; it was more like a "unhhhh" sound, inglorious to say the least.

In the end, she was fortunate in that she just scraped the heel of her hand on the asphalt. She jumped out just before the "don't walk" sign came on. She glared at the drivers and as a result didn't see the small pothole in the pavement. The fall was humiliating, so she bounced up, collected her portfolio and dashed across the street as the cars beared down on her. One was audacious enough to blow his horn, a pathetic beep that inexpensive japanese cars have. She much preferred the air-horn on her rusty fiat.

She was in a hurry because of her presentation. She was fried because she had finished it up at 1:00 AM. She wasn't even sure at the end if she had spelled the client's name correctly. It was a blur at 12:45, a bleary eyed prayer that her printer would comply and not run out of toner. She was sure at least that they logo was the right colors for she had sent that our for approval early in the day.

Being a freelancer was at once a challenge and represented freedom, but within parameters. She had imagined in school that she would turn advertising on it's head, but she found that there was this big problem in that realization. Clients had their own ideas. Dammit.

So it became about colors. Fonts. Lines. What was the soup du jour. Was it celery color (passe) or burnt orange (trendy ironic retroism). It was about demographics. It was about purely subjective preference. It was about history. Screw history!

She stopped at starbucks. The green color was reassuring. It was soothing. She thought about the colors of the logo that had been decided for her. Orange, yellow and gray. Degraded typeface that she had found on the net. Something that was cutting edge 5 years ago. Sigh.

Her coffee was her friend. It understood her. Hello Mr. Coffee. As she pushed open the door to the glass and steel tower, she failed to notice that the door sign. Pull to open! She smashed into the door, coffee exploded, and her portfolio was damaged. Yellow, Orange, Gray and now light tan.