Marni Katz

We head to San Francisco to visit with Rachel Gant and Andrew Deming of Yield Design as they prepare for their first product launch—a nifty bag that unfolds into a picnic blanket.

Abstract painter Yolanda Sanchez earned an MFA from Yale in the mid '90s, 15 years after earning a Ph.D. Clinical Psychology from Florida State. It's not surprising that in her artist's statement, Sanchez discusses how her work is "a gathering of [her] awareness of being," and that her goal is "to become a more finely tuned observer." What is obvious to us, and of course the reason we chose her for this week's CMYLK, is that she clearly lives in a beautifully colored world.

Ariel Ashe, interior designer and principal founder of New York City architecture and interior design firm Ashe + Leandro, started her professional life as an intern at Saturday Night Live. Perhaps not the expected path for a chic city designer who was just named by Architectural Digest as a design talent to watch in its prestigious AD100 issue. However, Ashe did, after all, study scenery and lighting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Judging from her Friday Five picks, we can safely say her inspirations are both dynamic and eclectic.

There's nothing like the holidays to inspire one's inner Martha Stewart. But who needs to get all New England? New Year's Eve, after all, is more glitz and glam than country baked ham. While a woodsy palette with simple white ceramics, a touch of moss, and a sprinkling of pine cones can delight the modern maven, other palettes are equally as pretty. Above, a winter wonderland that's modern and femme, and finally, at the bottom, the gold sparkle that is always a win on December 31. We hope you'll find inspiration in these festive table settings and corresponding Colourlovers palettes. Happy New Year!

Photography/director team Jeremy Floto and Cassandra Warner are principals in the New York-based studio Floto + Warner. Their photos have appeared in Time, W Magazine, and Wallpaper; other clients include Prada and Volkswagen. I found them via Pinterest in my quest for colored smoke landscape photos (they created a beautiful colored smoke video). You can see from this trio of color-popping images that their work is irresistible. I had fun using Colourlovers to create palettes for this week's CMYLK.

Evan Clabots, who studied at RISD and the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland, not only won awards as a student, but designed a licensed a product with IKEA before graduating. In 2004, he joined Dror Benshetrit's studio as Benshetrit's first hire, where he headed both the Product Design and Interior Design departments. In 2004, Clabots founded Nonlinear Studio, a multidisciplinary business that offers aproduct design, furniture design, interior design, brand identity, and art direction. For Clabots, design is a process of developing a complete story. He seeks the interconnected play between what something looks like, how it works, and how it interacts with someone’s life. Let's see what he chooses for inspiration for this week's Friday Five.

Design Store(y) heads to the East Village this holiday season to tour Still House, owned by Pratt graduate Urte Tylaite. The 300-square-foot sliver of a space was designed by Brooklyn-based firm Silva/Bradshaw, and features wood plank floors, a dropped wood plank ceiling, narrow wood plank shelving along the walls, and plywood display cases down the middle. Tylaite features items from local designers, plus pieces from Scandinavia and Japan. Still House opened its doors a bit over 18 months ago; we've been dying to get inside.

December's Destination Design takes you to Refugia, a new hotel deep within the Archipelago of Chile, on the island of Chiloé in Patagonia. Seriously enticing. The 12-room lodge, which opened in September 2012, was built by Santiago architecture firm Mobil Arquitectos. The hotel building is a shingled, horizontal structure that sits atop a glass base, combining traditional Chiloé craftsmanship with modern design. Perched on a hilltop, with a water view of the Rilan Bay, and a glimpse of the Andes Mountains, the idea is to be at one with nature, but very comfortable, of course. The rural setting offers opportunities for sailing and horseback riding, as well as treks through the rain forest to visit over a dozen UNESCO World Heritage sites. Refugia even has its own vessel for excursions that was built by local shipbuilders.

Christmas isn't all about red, green, and gold; certainly not in Scandinavia. I seem to remember a blue and silver Christmas tree in my past, but that may have just been questionable decorating choices compliments of the 1970s. This week's CMYLK uses Colourlovers to create palettes that celebrate holiday style with a Nordic sensibility.

Martin Yeeles, a graphic designer, is this week's Friday Five subject, and the co-founder and creative director of Boston-based stationery and gift company, Bob’s Your Uncle. He created all of the Bob’s Your Uncle line, which includes boldly contemporary greeting cards, gift wrap, place mats, file folders, dish towels, and more. In 1993, he and his wife, company co-founder and former shoe designer Michele Yeeles, moved to the States from their native England “just for a year or two,” and never left. In case you're not familiar with the saying, “Bob’s your uncle” is a British expression used to indicate that a given task is very simple. It was possibly inspired by Victorian Prime Minister, Robert Cecil, who appointed his nephew to a ministerial post. Translation: having Bob as your uncle was a guarantee of success. Let's see where Bob, I mean, Martin, finds inspiration.

December's Designer Dailies focuses on a well-known favorite, contemporary furniture design company, Blu Dot. Its founders, John Christakos, Maurice Blanks, and Charles Lazor (who has since left), were college buddies who all appreciated architecture, art, and design, and all of whom were less than thrilled with the furnishings they could afford once they graduated. Rather than simply complaining, in 1997 they formed Blu Dot, with the goal of bringing good design to as many people as possible. Here's a slice of how they get that accomplished.

Artist Patrick Wilson, who lives and works in Los Angeles, explores mid-century modernism in his boxy abstract works. We're inspired by his color blocking combinations, as are the Hirschhorn and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which both own his work. Wilson is a self-described "slow motion action painter," who relies on intuition in the creative process. In terms of technique, he uses a drywall blade to drag layers of translucent and opaque coats of paint across the canvas to gradually build his architectural compositions. We used Colourlovers to create palettes for three of his works in this week's installment of CMYLK.