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I tried to include warm food designs like soup and black tea in the first layer of the window as well, and in the background I painted the effect of melting butter, in order to create a warm environment visually.

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Afterwards, my classmates and I went to visit the official window display for the window design and had a brief mock up.

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In the final design, I used two colour combinations and then filled each colour block with a different pattern, all of which were warm foods and common foods that are usually found in the world, and I hope that people can feel warmth from my design.

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For the final design I decided on a biscuit cutter theme, separating the blankets in different colour blocks and painting different prints.

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In the screen printing workshop I experimented with colours, printing food patterns on paper in warm tones, in order to give a visual warmth to the work.

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I then created a visual summary to define the direction of my design and the ideas I wanted to express.

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Based on her work, I also tried to draw some prints as patterns I might use in later designs. At the same time I realised that I was inadvertently using warmer colours for my drawings, so my mind changed.

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Since I couldn't use more than seven colours, I looked through the albums of Yoko Kibamoto, who is very good at making prints in a small number of colours, and she also does a lot of food-themed work, which was a great help to me.

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Afterwards we went to Donna Wilson's workshop where I photographed some of the blankets in the flesh as a reference for the next step in conceptualising and designing.

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I then sketched out the initial design and the colour scheme I was trying to use: an irregular blanket and a macaron colour scheme. That was my first IDEA.

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My first thought about coloured food was macarons, as they are very diverse in colour and very much in the 'dopamine style'. So I found some pictures of macaroons

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Then I found a Tangram as an example and wanted to design an irregularly shaped blanket based on its properties.

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What Are the Best Food Colourings for Macarons?

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The majority of our macarons are made with natural colourings. We think natural colourings are the best food colourings for macarons because the macarons look more appetising. Natural food colourings may be more difficult to get hold of for a home kitchen, but with a bit of perseverance, you should be able to track them down online and in larger supermarkets.

Macarons & More founder and head baker, Tim Kinnaird has given us his five top tips for colouring your macarons.
1. Avoid liquid colourings
It is best to avoid liquid colourings. They can interfere with the consistency of the macaron batter and cause that to be too runny, leading to misshapen shells. It is best to use a paste or powder, so the consistency is maintained.
2. Don't pursue colour at the expense of taste
If you are trying to achieve deep vibrant colours, particularly red, blues, greens and blacks you will need to use an artificial colour and probably a good amount of it. Be aware that to achieve that sort of effect, your shells may start to taste a little of the colouring used. A really deep black colour is very difficult to achieve without a large amount of black colouring added. It might look pretty for your Instagram but believe us it won't taste very nice.
3. Trial a small batch first
To match a colour with a macaron shell can be tricky. If you need a particular colour to fit with a theme, perhaps a wedding or other celebration, you are best to trial the amount of colouring in a small batch first. Get yourself some accurate microscales and weigh the amount of colour you have used and adjust subsequent batches from there.
4. Experiment with post-bake colour application
Another way to add colour is to brush shells once they are baked and have just come out of the oven. Make up a thin mix with your colouring and water - as if you were painting a watercolour picture - and brush a small amount of that lightly on the still warm shell with a pastry brush. The heat from the shell will dry the colour on.
5. Apply powders before baking
Powdered colouring can also be dusted onto shells before baking to give a speckled appearance. Chocolate shells, coloured with cocoa powder, are difficult to make consistently. We gave up trying to do that many years ago and now use a natural caramel colour instead.
One of the best things about baking macarons is the experimentation you can have with colour and flavour combinations. We're still discovering new techniques and applications of colour. Let us know on Facebook and Twitter how you get on.

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What Are the Best Food Colourings for Macarons?

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The majority of our macarons are made with natural colourings. We think natural colourings are the best food colourings for macarons because the mac...

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During the lesson I drew some food and to highlight the theme of dopamine colourways I chose to mix and then draw these cards in different colours.

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The colour can make people feel happy

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find the colour of different food, and use these colour to make the blanket

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'Dopamine' colors are giving the internet a vivid new look

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How the "dopamine dressing" trend-dressing in colorful, happiness-inducing hues-is making its way from fashion to our screens.

Illustration by Eliran Vahdi.

Stay informed on all things design.

Shaping Design is created on Editor X, the advanced web design platform for professionals. Create your next project on Editor X.

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'Dopamine' colors are giving the internet a vivid new look

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How the "dopamine dressing" trend-dressing in colorful, happiness-inducing hues-is making its way from fashion to our screens.

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The Relationship Between Colour and Dopamine

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Colour is a fundamental aspect of our daily lives. It surrounds us in everything we see, from the natural world to the manufactured objects around us. Colour can affect our mood, emotions and behaviour in many ways, and it has long been known that different colours can have other effects on our brains. In recent years, studies have found a direct relationship between colour and dopamine, the brain's "feel-good" chemical.
What is Dopamine?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is associated with pleasure, reward and motivation. It is produced in the brain when we experience something positive, such as when we eat food we enjoy or engage in an activity that we find pleasurable. Dopamine is a crucial component of our brain's reward system and plays a vital role in regulating our mood, motivation and behaviour.
The Relationship Between Colour and Dopamine
Studies have found that different colours can trigger dopamine release in the brain. Bright, bold colours such as red, yellow and orange are known to be particularly effective at stimulating dopamine release. These colours are associated with positive emotions such as joy, excitement and happiness, and they can help to boost our mood and motivation.

In contrast, muted, subdued colours such as grey, brown and beige are less likely to trigger dopamine release. These colours are associated with more neutral emotions, such as calmness and relaxation, and they are less likely to impact our mood and behaviour significantly.
How Colour Affects Our Daily Lives
The relationship between colour and dopamine has important implications for our daily lives. By understanding how different colours can affect our mood and behaviour, we can use colour to create a more positive and productive environment for ourselves. For example, if you are feeling unmotivated or unproductive, surrounding yourself with bright, bold colours such as red and yellow can help to boost your energy and focus. If you are feeling stressed or anxious, calming colours such as blue and green can help to create a sense of calm and relaxation.

Colour and dopamine are closely linked, and different colours can significantly impact our mood, emotions and behaviour. By understanding the relationship between colour and dopamine, we can use colour to create a more positive and productive environment for ourselves and enhance our mood and motivation. Whether you're an artist or simply someone interested in the science of colour, the relationship between colour and dopamine offers a fascinating glimpse into the workings of our brain and the world around us.

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The Relationship Between Colour and Dopamine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Colour is a fundamental aspect of our daily lives. It surrounds us in everything we see, from the natural world to the manufactured objects around us. Colour can affect our mood, emotions and behaviour in many ways, and it has long been known that different colours can have other effects on our brains.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The tangram ( Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: ; 'seven boards of skill') is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat polygons, called , which are put together to form shapes. The objective is to replicate a pattern (given only an outline) generally found in a puzzle book using all seven pieces without overlap. Alternatively the tans can be used to create original minimalist designs that are either appreciated for their inherent aesthetic merits or as the basis for challenging others to replicate its outline. It is reputed to have been invented in China sometime around the late 18th century CE and then carried over to America and Europe by trading ships shortly after. It became very popular in Europe for a time, and then again during World War I. It is one of the most widely recognized dissection puzzles in the world and has been used for various purposes including amusement, art, and education.

The origin of the word 'tangram' is unclear. One conjecture holds that it is a compound of the Greek element '-gram' derived from γράμμα ('written character, letter, that which is drawn') with the 'tan-' element being variously conjectured to be Chinese t'an 'to extend' or Cantonese t'ang 'Chinese'. Alternatively, the word may be derivative of the archaic English 'tangram' meaning "an odd, intricately contrived thing".

In either case, the first known use of the word is believed to be found in the 1848 book Geometrical Puzzle for the Young by mathematician and future Harvard University president Thomas Hill who likely coined the term in the same work. Hill vigorously promoted the word in numerous articles advocating for the puzzle's use in education and in 1864 it received official recognition in the English language when it was included in Noah Webster's American Dictionary.

The early years of attempting to date the Tangram were confused by the popular but fraudulently written history by famed puzzle maker Samuel Loyd in his 1908 The Eighth Book Of Tan. This work contains many whimsical features that aroused both interest and suspicion amongst contemporary scholars who attempted to verify the account. By 1910 it was clear that it was a hoax. A letter dated from this year from the Oxford Dictionary editor Sir James Murray on behalf of a number of Chinese scholars to the prominent puzzlist Henry Dudeney reads "The result has been to show that the man Tan, the god Tan, and the Book of Tan are entirely unknown to Chinese literature, history or tradition." Along with its many strange details The Eighth Book of Tan's date of creation for the puzzle of 4000 years in antiquity had to be regarded as entirely baseless and false.

The Tangram's historical Chinese inventor is unknown except through the pen name Yang-cho-chu-shih (Dim-witted recluse). It is believed that the puzzle was originally introduced in a book titled Ch'i chi'iao t'u which was already being reported as lost in 1815 by Shan-chiao in his book New Figures of the Tangram. Nevertheless, it is generally reputed that the puzzle's origins would have been around 20 years earlier than this.

Despite its relatively recent creation, there is a much older tradition of dissection amusements in China which likely played a role in its inspiration. In particular, the modular banquet tables of the Song dynasty bear an uncanny resemblance to the playing pieces of the Tangram and there were books dedicated to arranging them together to form pleasing patterns.

The prominent third-century mathematician Liu Hui made use of construction proofs in his works and some bear a striking resemblance to the subsequently developed Banquet tables which in turn seem to anticipate the Tangram. While there is no reason to suspect that tangrams were used in the proof of the Pythagorean theorem, as is sometimes reported, it is likely that this style of geometric reasoning went on to exert an influence on Chinese cultural life that lead directly to the puzzle.

Reaching the Western world (1815-1820s)

The earliest extant tangram was given to the Philadelphia shipping magnate and congressman Francis Waln in 1802 but it was not until over a decade later that Western audiences, at large, would be exposed to the puzzle. In 1815, American Captain M. Donnaldson was given a pair of author Sang-Hsia-koi's books on the subject (one problem and one solution book) when his ship, Trader docked there. They were then brought with the ship to Philadelphia, in February 1816. The first tangram book to be published in America was based on the pair brought by Donnaldson.

The puzzle eventually reached England, where it became very fashionable. The craze quickly spread to other European countries. This was mostly due to a pair of British tangram books, The Fashionable Chinese Puzzle, and the accompanying solution book, Key. Soon, tangram sets were being exported in great number from China, made of various materials, from glass, to wood, to tortoise shell.

Many of these unusual and exquisite tangram sets made their way to Denmark. Danish interest in tangrams skyrocketed around 1818, when two books on the puzzle were published, to much enthusiasm. The first of these was Mandarinen (About the Chinese Game). This was written by a student at Copenhagen University, which was a non-fictional work about the history and popularity of tangrams. The second, Det nye chinesiske Gaadespil (The new Chinese Puzzle Game), consisted of 339 puzzles copied from The Eighth Book of Tan, as well as one original.

One contributing factor in the popularity of the game in Europe was that although the Catholic Church forbade many forms of recreation on the sabbath, they made no objection to puzzle games such as the tangram.

Second craze in Germany (1891-1920s)

Tangrams were first introduced to the German public by industrialist Friedrich Adolf Richter around 1891. The sets were made out of stone or false earthenware, and marketed under the name "The Anchor Puzzle".

More internationally, the First World War saw a great resurgence of interest in tangrams, on the homefront and trenches of both sides. During this time, it occasionally went under the name of "The Sphinx" an alternative title for the "Anchor Puzzle" sets.

A tangram paradox is a dissection fallacy: Two figures composed with the same set of pieces, one of which seems to be a proper subset of the other. One famous paradox is that of the two monks, attributed to Dudeney, which consists of two similar shapes, one with and the other missing a foot. In reality, the area of the foot is compensated for in the second figure by a subtly larger body. Another tangram paradox is proposed by Sam Loyd in The 8th Book of Tan:

The seventh and eighth figures represent the mysterious square, built with seven pieces: then with a corner clipped off, and still the same seven pieces employed.

The two-monks paradox - two similar shapes but one missing a foot:

The Magic Dice Cup tangram paradox - from Sam Loyd's book The 8th Book of Tan (1903). Each of these cups was composed using the same seven geometric shapes. But the first cup is whole, and the others contain vacancies of different sizes. (Notice that the one on the left is slightly shorter than the other two. The one in the middle is ever-so-slightly wider than the one on the right, and the one on the left is narrower still.)

Clipped square tangram paradox - from Loyd's book The Eighth Book of Tan (1903):

Over 6500 different tangram problems have been created from 19th century texts alone, and the current number is ever-growing. Fu Traing Wang and Chuan-Chin Hsiung proved in 1942 that there are only thirteen convex tangram configurations (config segment drawn between any two points on the configuration's edge always pass through the configuration's interior, i.e., configurations with no recesses in the outline).

Choosing a unit of measurement so that the seven pieces can be assembled to form a square of side one unit and having area one square unit, the seven pieces are:

2 large right triangles (hypotenuse 1, sides , area )

1 medium right triangle (hypotenuse , sides , area )

2 small right triangles (hypotenuse , sides , area )

1 square (sides , area )

1 parallelogram (sides of and , height of , area )

Of these seven pieces, the parallelogram is unique in that it has no reflection symmetry but only rotational symmetry, and so its mirror image can be obtained only by flipping it over. Thus, it is the only piece that may need to be flipped when forming certain shapes.

Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno's Math Games (three volumes). New York: Philomel Books, 1987. ISBN 0-399-21151-9 (v. 1), ISBN 0-698-11672-0 (v. 2), ISBN 0-399-22274-X (v. 3).

Botermans, Jack, et al. The World of Games: Their Origins and History, How to Play Them, and How to Make Them (translation of Wereld vol spelletjes). New York: Facts on File, 1989. ISBN 0-8160-2184-8.

Dudeney, H. E. Amusements in Mathematics. New York: Dover Publications, 1958.

Gardner, Martin. "Mathematical Games-on the Fanciful History and the Creative Challenges of the Puzzle Game of Tangrams", Scientific American Aug. 1974, p. 98-103.

Gardner, Martin. "More on Tangrams", Scientific American Sep. 1974, p. 187-191.

Gardner, Martin. The 2nd Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961. ISBN 0-671-24559-7.

Loyd, Sam. Sam Loyd's Book of Tangram Puzzles (The 8th Book of Tan Part I). Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1968.

Slocum, Jerry, et al. Puzzles of Old and New: How to Make and Solve Them. De Meern, Netherlands: Plenary Publications International (Europe); Amsterdam, Netherlands: ADM International; Seattle: Distributed by University of Washington Press, 1986. ISBN 0-295-96350-6.

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The tangram ( Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: ; 'seven boards of skill') is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat polygons, called , which are put together to form shapes. The objective is to replicate a pattern (given only an outline) generally found in a puzzle book using all seven pieces without overlap.

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Through my own diagrams, I realised that the purpose of the blanket was to give warmth, so I abandoned the irregular shape of the design as the square blanket design covered a wider area. I also experimented with warm coloured paints on the fabric to simulate the actual blanket.