January 2011     

Doing a little research I've found some other La Quintas around the country. This La Quinta Inn and Suites was tastefully designed in similar "logo" colors but with neutral shades of gray and white to give your eyes a desired rest and balance. It is not a problem that the style of this building is more contemporary and here is why below.

Harmonize the Colors According to Design Laws

As a designer I would like to start with the basics. Let's go back and look at the color wheel. A color wheel is a chart with 12 basic colors derived from rainbow from which we (designers) use to select our pallet of colors. On a color wheel, there are 3 primary colors which are unique and cannot be made by mixing other colors. These 3 colors are shown below: yellow, blue and red.

There are also additional colors which are created by mixing the first 3 colors above. These colors are green, purple and orange. Green can be created by mixing yellow and blue, purple is created by mixing blue and red, and orange colors are derived from yellow and red.

Now, we have to remember that these colors are prime and very bright. The rest of the colors are the transitions between the prime colors, which are used by designers to complement main selected colors. There are also different shades of the mentioned colors, from light to dark and colors of different intensity. I am not going to go into every aspect of a color theory here but I hope you can follow what comes next.

Here are the existing colors of Hotel La Quinta which are all prime colors: Yellow and Red with a Green logo you can't see on this picture.

What's happening in a case of La Quinta paint is the 2 prime colors collide into each other without any relief for our eyes. All shades of Yellow with Red roof tile and a Green Signage bring the brightest colors on the color wheel together where they simply fight each other on such a large size building. Here are examples of similar so called "color fights" if we used other primary colors for the same hotel (see images below.) For the demonstration purpose I've combined Blue and Red and then Green and Red - all prime colors. As you can see for yourself, creating all prime colors combinations will always look bad in such building application. In fact, we can play all day with prime colors trying to combine them on this buildings and it will not look good! So, what is the answer you ask? You probably guessed it that to harmonize these colors you have to go a shade next to these prime colors as well as choose different intensity of your selected colors.

Combining blue and red or green and red colors do not work here as well. These are our prime colors on a color wheel, which should be complemented by colors of different intensity and shade to give a needed visual relief to our eyes.

But selecting better colors is not the only problem solver in a case of La Quinta building design. So, what else can be done to make this building to stand out?

Highlighting the Details

Highlighting details is very important in any building design. A German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe noted this long time ago, leaving us his famous saying: "God is in the detail." In case of La Quinta hotel, the balconies painted in almost same shade of yellow make everything on the building flat and uninteresting, almost like a prison or a badly-designed hospital. There is nothing to rest your eye on or to create visual interest. Here is something to remember for any property owner: by accenting some architectural elements, and creating contrast by applying various textures, a building will get an immediate perceived value increase! This design law applies to any type or style of a building, contemporary or traditional.

On the La Quinta hotel, I would definitely highlight the balconies' railing and the repeated elements, such as columns, light fixtures, doors and windows. I would accent the doors with complementary colors and outline the window frames to bring out some character. And why not try to follow all the different styles of the La Quintas buildings, and work with them instead of fighting them?

This smaller building also has a bright yellow exterior color, but what an amazing transformation from brightly painted red doors! Even though the two colors are also prime and bright, and because the doors are just small accents and the building is in a much smaller scale, the building looks quite good. All of the additional details, such as window frames and lighting fixtures, help complete the design.

Texture

I wanted to point your attention to different textures as well. In case of the La Quinta Hotel, there are great opportunities to differentiate such textures as stucco, roof tiles, wood, glass, stone, and even greenery surrounding the building. Landscape can be perceived as an additional layer of texture, making a building float on a soft, cloud-like greenery. Or it could complement your architecture with sharper shapes of more defined local plants.

When we work with any existing local architecture, we have to be respectful to the buildings and to the local setting while trying to promote a brand of a company. Combining those two could only be done by a professionally trained designer. If in doubt, please look around for professionals; it doesn't cost that much to get a color consultation or to receive some simple branding comments from a local designer.