DENNICE QUIJANO — love good color

Since SIP I have adopted a uniform of sorts, it consists of wearing my most comfy of everything, including my Allbirds shoes. I have been a huge fan since the brand appeared on Kickstarter in 2014. After all, who doesn’t love wool and a comfortable runner, Allbirds is the best of both! They recently launched the We’re Better Together campaign, donating $500,000 worth of shoes to the healthcare community and in turn creating the opportunity for others to help by making it a one-for-one model. Their generosity is inspiring and so is Dennice, who I had the pleasure of meeting at a Be Original panel discussion on color. Dennice’s approach to color and life reinforces why Allbirds is beloved.

Dennice Quijano, Senior Product Designer | Allbirds

Laura Guido-Clark: WHEN I SAY THE WORD COLOR, WHAT DO YOU THINK OF?

Dennice Quijano: Color is more than what the eye can see. To create good color, it's important to understand the making or chemistry of the object and its components. And then, understand the purpose of the object's so then color comes in to complement its mission. Colors are stories.

LG-C: CAN YOU SHARE A SIGNIFICANT COLOR MEMORY OR YOUR FIRST COLOR MEMORY?

DQ: When my mother was pregnant, she was told by her doctor I was a boy early in her pregnancy, so all of my room was blue – At a later stage, she learned she was carrying a girl, but most baby showers had already happened, and home decor was already blue. I'm convinced that's the reason why I don't own or wear any pink. As a kid, teenager, and as an adult, pink hasn't been my thing.

LGC: HOW DO YOU USE COLOR FOR SELF-EXPRESSION?

DQ: I'd like to think that my use of color it's a bit more rigorous than just self-expression. I see our color muscle used as a mix of product and brand expression. The mix of those two often translates into rigorous color theory/palettes that surprise our consumers, usually inspired by nature.

Thinking about how I wear color for self-expression: Color definitely impacts the way I want to show up for myself. Lately, my favorite outfit is an all Tawny sweatshirt and skirt; it's one big block of the same color in different textures. It's warm, rich, and energetic but, at the same time, feels very calm.

LGC: WHICH ONE OF YOUR SENSES, ASIDE FROM SIGHT, DO YOU MOST ASSOCIATE WITH COLOR?

DQ: For me, it's easier to describe colors in relationship to food and raw materials. At work, I like to talk about colors to my peers in ways they can almost taste and smell them.

Side note, by being so close to wine country here in San Francisco, I've been paying more attention to how sommeliers describe wine flavors and notes - I see a parallel on how to describe wine in such a detailed manner when speaking about color. Not all reds and whites are the same!

LGC: HOW DOES COLOR PLAY A ROLE IN YOUR WORK?

DQ: My color work complements my footwear work and the other way around.

I've found that my formal industrial design training has allowed me to look at color from a similar lens - I concept, iterate, and prototype, to 2d to 3D like I'd do in product. That way, it becomes less of an afterthought or finish, but more of an integral feature of the product.

Allbirds | Wool and Tree Collection | Spring 2020

LGC: WHAT IS SOMETHING YOU SAW LATELY THAT WAS COLOR CAPTIVATING?

DQ: I recently watched Uncut Gems - It's an A24 movie where Adam Sandler plays a jeweler in NYC. Besides the film being incredibly entertaining - It was straight eye candy. I've recently learned that 35mm film blacks are often noted for their blue tint, which has been amped up by the shooting and coloring methods of the film. No blacks were truly black in this movie because of the way the film was treated and developed, and I just find that beautiful.

LGC: WHO HAD THE BIGGEST COLOR INFLUENCE ON YOU?

DQ: Josef Albers work was probably the one that made color click for me in my early design days. Sonia Delaunay is one of my favorite artists. She mastered color across disciplines -- from paintings to textile design, to graphic design. Her work was created in the early 1900s, and it all feels somehow so relevant and well crafted. From an industrial design perspective, I've always admired Kenya Hara and his rigor of the usage of white to appreciate objects from a utilitarian point of view.

I'm always on the lookout for color inspiration, from digital art, light artists, architecture, outdoor landscapes. Color is everywhere!

Here's a link to my inspiration blog on color and form: https://v-alpha.tumblr.com/

JOSEPH ALBERS | 1995 Homage to the Square: Apparition . Oil on Masonite . Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Sonia Delaunay, Robes simultanées (Simultaneous Dresses), 1925, oil on canvas, at the Collection of Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid Spain

LGC: WHAT COLOR CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE?

DQ: On the technical side, I'd like to dive deeper into better and more sustainable methods of dying. Lots of progress has been made in the past decade, people have learned how toxic and dirty dyeing can be. As a whole, there's progress, but there's still a large part of the industry that chooses to ignore this part of the garment making process.

I've had the luck to learn and experience how our making partners deal with these challenges - from certified waste collection to in-house water treatment and efficiencies. These experts have the highest sustainability certifications, but there will always be room for chemical and biotech innovation in this space. Wouldn't it be great if we could dye waterless?

On a personal side, I'd love to better articulate better the value of a color. In a world where everything can be made out of synthetics and plastics - I'd love to bring more craft and awareness to the process behind colors.

LGC: DO YOU HAVE A PHILOSOPHY YOU WORK BY?

DQ: I like the idea of iterating on color collections as a musical composition. In color throughout collections, there is rhythm, duration, repetition, high notes, and silence. I’ve never played an instrument, I had some training as a kid like most of us, but ultimately didn’t stick. That experience must’ve given me some perspective on compositions, somehow my brain just wired those parallels.