ColorKit™ Case Study: Deep Winter John

John is an excellent example of a person with neutral-warm traits, who is in fact a cool season. At first glance, he may look like an Autumn, but that would be incorrect. It takes an experienced eye and lots of colors to find the truth!

First, meet John! John is a professional singer and trumpeter (check him out on Instagram here) who came to us to learn which colors suit him best, so he can market himself with confidence, show up boldly on stage, and step into his main character energy!

When we begin every color analysis, our first order of business is to determine whether you have COOL or WARM undertones.

The skin color we can see on the surface is your overtone, not your undertone. This is the layer of your skin that contains the type of melanin that adapts to sun exposure.

The type of melanin that determines undertone lies below the surface, and does not adapt to sun exposure. It is invisible to the naked eye, and remains constant for your entire life.

Your undertone's temperature shows itself in subtle ways only when observed in close proximity to varying colors in quick succession. A single color in a single instance isn't enough to observe undertones, especially when fabric finish and lighting are ignored.

The solution is to create a controlled environment with natural lighting, precise colors in a consistent texture, and targeted comparisons that isolate specific criteria: TEMPERATURE, VALUE, and CHROMA.

In this section of your ColorKit™ results report, we are isolating TEMPERATURE, so that your undertones can makes themselves known.

Let’s see this in action on ColorKit™ client John.

Slide through the images below to view John wearing cool colors (left) and warm colors (right):

Overall, his undertones are quite WARM. Within each isolated comparison, the majority of the warm colors dull his complexion, add sallowness, and unfocus his eyes. Cool colors unify his complexion, define his features, and allow for clearer eye contact.

Does that mean that warm colors cannot work for him, ever? Not at all!

Your season has three main criteria: Temperature (warm or cool), Value (light or deep), and Chroma (soft or bright). For any color to qualify for its season, it must satisfy only two out of the three criteria.

Therefore, even the cool seasons will contain some “warm” colors, as long as they are LIGHT & SOFT (Summer) or BRIGHT & DEEP (Winter).

As I like to say, all colors are fine options for you. A smile is the most beautiful thing you can wear, so choose colors that bring you joy!

The purpose of this first test in your analysis is to first reveal which temperature of colors are BETTER than fine (warm or cool).

Now that we know John is COOL, we can eliminate two of the four parent seasons for him:

WINTER (cool)

SPRING (warm)

SUMMER (cool)

AUTUMN (warm)

In the next test, we aim to find out if he needs cool AND bright (Winter) or cool AND soft (Summer). This is how we determine his season!

In the images below, we are comparing all COOL colors, varying only the CHROMA (saturation) within each comparison. Does John need lower chroma (soft, Summer) or higher chroma (bright, Winter)?

Slide through to view John alternating between wearing Summer colors (left) and Winter colors (right):

In which season’s colors does he appear to “pop”? In which season does he appear more in focus, clearer, as though he’s “listening” to you?

SUMMER colors have a low chroma, and all have an influence of gray and/or appear “dusty” or “faded”.

WINTER colors have high chroma, and appear “electric” compared to Summer colors. There is no influence of gray in these colors.

To my eye, the WINTER colors win by a landslide. The Summer colors are dragging my eye down, blurring John’s features, and creating a tired energy in his face.

WINTER is mirroring his natural coloring, creating a balanced image that lifts and highlights his features.

In the next section, we will further compare the Winter colors to verify John’s sub-season: BRIGHT, COOL, or DEEP.

First, here is John framed in a sampling of each Winter subseason:

This is where I form an initial hypothesis that John is a Deep Winter. That is where I see him highlighted most clearly and he is neither overpowered nor does he appear unsupported by any of the colors around him.

To test this hypothesis, we compare three sub-season-specific Winter shades from each individual color family (e.g. red, blue) and see which appears most harmonious on him.

Slide through to view John wearing quintessential Bright, Cool, and Deep Winter colors from each color family, and see where your eye is most drawn to him:

My eye rests immediately and comfortably on John in the Deep Winter colors, and a few Bright and Cool Winter colors as well. Remember, no one is ONLY their sub-season. John is a Winter first and foremost, and a Deep Winter second.

Just take a look at John in his “best of the best” Winter colors and tell me he doesn’t look like a million bucks!