Q: “Kim, I have 2 questions from recent colour consultations. A Summer was ok in khaki too – should I have gone down the tonal route instead of seasonal? I found it so so difficult to analyse another client yesterday – she loves really bright even neon colours and looks great in them. I said in the end she was a Bright. I’ll be getting her the swatch. Was that right? She also liked khaki and I said to use it as a neutral… khaki isn’t bright… Yikes! I feel like I didn’t really know what I was doing. Any advice?” Brunhilde
Dear Brunhilde,
Why can’t a Summer (or any other season for that matter) wear khaki?
There are no rules in colour analysis.
There isn’t a central body that legislates on which colours the 4 seasons or the 73,000 tones can wear.
And, if you look around you’ll find Summer swatch wallets containing different colours from those we sell in our online catalogue of colour supplies at trade prices…
So who is to say what is right or wrong?
The only person who can tell you whether your diagnosis is right or wrong is your client.
As for choosing the tonal or seasonal route, my advice is always to ask the client what SHE wants.
That’s why I offer both.
- For more helpful comments from other Summer consultants about this subject in my free FB group, click here
Seasonal and tonal are the same thing
All my colour training covers seasonal AND tonal because, at the end of the day, they’re the same thing.
If you start with a seasonal diagnosis, you already have the tonal information – and vice versa.
The difference between the two approaches is more about how we all LEARN in different ways.
For instance, I am not a visual learner but for the first 17 years of my business all we had was the seasonal approach. This works best for visual learners and most women are visual learners.
As an auditory learner, I struggled to ‘see’ seasonal, especially for the first 5 years, until I stumbled across learning styles.
Then I taught myself how to ‘see’ seasonal in a different way. It wasn’t perfect but it opened up better choices for my clients.
Loads of different tonal approaches came along in the Nineties – I couldn’t make head nor tail of most of them so I gave up trying and went back to good ol’ seasonal.
Finally, two other image consultants and myself pooled our knowledge and came up with a tonal system that is simple for both consultants and clients to understand.
It’s a simple process of elimination that makes it easy to work out anyone’s dominant tonal direction – with and without drapes
Then, if the client wants a seasonal diagnosis, we add in the secondary tonal characteristic… et voila!
And vice versa
If you are a visual learner and you ‘see’ the client’s season straight away, you can easily diagnose both the dominant and secondary tonal characteristics by reversing this simple process of elimination.
Wherever you begin – with the season or the tonal dominant – all methods/approaches lead to the same result.
You may only need to establish the dominant tonal characteristic.
Not everyone is seasonal!
And even if YOU think your client is seasonal, SHE might me more than happy with a tonal diagnosis.
Assume nothing!
And ask her!
For diagnosing tonal to seasonal, and seasonal to tonal
Just use the easy-to-follow tables which start on Page 13 in my Colour Analysis Training Manual.
Then you can enjoy wielding your colour drapes to confirm your diagnosis and show your client what you have already seen.
Further reading ‘Are seasonal and tonal the same thing?‘