Week 6: Kuler Than You

This week in class we're discussing how niche websites and communities (i.e. not Facebook) influence our blogs. I feel like this is a perfect opportunity to share one of my favorite time wasters EVER: Adobe Kuler. I was introduced to this massive time sink by a graphic artist at work. Ironic?

The tool is a color palette creator that helps you find beautiful colors that look perfect together, and it's free! I find it so inspiring to play around with and think of the colors on my blog or website, in a design, in my living room or all of the above. You can even export your colors into Adobe products like this student edition of Photoshop I have been craving (PLEASE, someone just give me one more reason I neeeeed this).

So you're probably wondering what this has to do with social media. Adobe Kuler also offers a lot of community resources for graphic artists and designers. Kuler gives users the ability to save, share, tag and comment on color combinations (Spicy Chicken anyone?) which creates a whole community just around design. Users can favorite and follow specific users if they find their color soul mate (hello, Blue Crush are we MFEO?). You can import photos from Flickr to help you pick colors and there are even forums where designers can share their creations.

By integrating social tools into their free product, Adobe has created a community for their users and fans who are passionate about design. Now that's a smart social media strategy.