Color Education for the 21st Century

It's time to redesign how color is taught from the ground up.

Hands-On Color Exploration

Smashing Color features playful, hands-on exercises for learning about color basics across the disciplines of science, the humanities, and art and design.

Color Awe & Inspiration

Smashing Color builds awareness of the vital role color plays in our lives and encourages everyone to find inspiration in the wealth of colors that surround us everyday.

 
““I took Maggie’s very FIRST color class 30 years ago and have been learning more and more about color from her ever since. Her work on color is brilliant, revolutionary and downright fun.”
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— Judith Kuskin, Mixed Media Artist, Seattle, WASource

What is different about Smashing Color?

Color is taught as a complex, inter-connected subject that spans many disciplines including Science, History, Geography, Language Arts, Psychology, Arts and Design.

Rather than depend on out-dated (and sometimes just plain wrong!) color theories, Smashing Color combines state-of-the-art information and engaging exercises to enrich your everyday experience with color.

Color in Three Dimensions

Visualize color relationships by switching from a 2D color wheel to a 3D color model!  Smashing Color Workshops and Open Studios are based on years of teaching students to see and describe color attributes in a variety of color order systems.

Expanding from 2D to 3D takes your understanding of color to a whole new level

Hands-on Interactive Activities

The more you experiment, the more you learn. In addition to the Smashing Color projects and activities, workshops include beta-test exercises from the international Color Literacy Project curriculum.

Sharing your color exercises with fellow color explorers takes you further than you can go alone and makes learning fun!

Color and Light

With the increasing use of computers, LEDs and digital technologies, it's time to connect the light based and pigment based color systems into one integrated 21st century color system.  

With some simple instruction and a bit of practice, it's easy to learn how to use color effectively in both digital and traditional media.

Guided Color Exploration

Maggie Maggio is a designer, artist and art educator who has studied and worked with color for over forty years.

Maggie’s personal explorations into the science of light and pigments led to the creation of workshops for artists and designers to incorporate the latest research in color science into their creative practice.