East Fork recently dropped the fall seasonal palette—a warm, burnished orange (Bittersweet), and a deep, atmospheric, shiny blue (Nocturne). In non-technical terms, you could say the two colors vibe off one another. If you ask Creative Director and resident color queen, Nicole Lissenden, her reasoning is far more profound, grounded in an artist’s education and the creative muscle that drives the incredible visual aesthetic at East Fork.
As East Fork celebrates its 15 years as a company, Nicole rings in her eighth year on the team and her fourth leading color selections. In this particularly auspicious year, Bittersweet and Nocturne culminate an entire year of reflection via color which began in the spring with Thistle, Water Lily, and Lagoon, and welcomed Longleaf in the summer season.
We caught up with Nicole to ask a few questions about her process, how Bittersweet and Nocturne entered the world, and what it all means. What we discovered is a journey through color, time, the “messy middle”, and the lived layers that give life its meaning. And just wait until you hear how imperfection and incompletion have become inspirational to her creative process. Sheesh!
First things first, tell us about how Bittersweet & Nocturne came into the world? What were you thinking about? Tell me your weird inspiration rabbit holes.
I love an unexpected pairing, but I’m also just a sucker for complements. Orange and blue are the pair that hits me the hardest. Complementary colors intensify each other when placed next to each, which is amazing, and what many people love most about them. But the little painting major that still lives inside of me is more excited by the neutrals they make when mixed, like what happens to a red by mixing a little green in. Don’t even get me started on the glorious browns that the mixing of purple and yellow can spawn.
When I’m thinking about this palette I’m thinking about their opposite position on the color wheel, but also the messy middle of the space between them. That took me down the path of wanting to explore gradients, mazes, paths, wormholes. The space between two places, the mechanism that gets you from one to the other.
This year’s Seasonal Colors are very much tied to East Fork’s 15th Anniversary year. Can you take us through this reflection on time?
An anniversary is a time to reflect on the past, take stock of the present, and look toward the future. As the year has unfolded we’ve tried to do that in various ways, and as it’s coming to an end it feels like the moment to do it all at once.
Bittersweet carries this sense of reflection on our past, that orange/brown overlay that tinges our memories or thoughts of the past . It’s the warmth that comes from telling stories of an era that felt simpler. It’s learning from the past to help shape our present and future.
Nocturne is our lens for the future. We look ahead and start envisioning, planning, executing, our next 15 years. We no longer have illusions that things will be straightforward or easy, yet we maintain a hope for something even more beautiful, more complicated, and more impactful than what we’ve built to date.
And here we are, in the present, where there aren’t really clear dividing lines between where we’ve been and where we’re going. We’re in the messy middle, and in so many ways, where the present always is.
On a more personal note, you’ve been with the company since 2018 and recently went from Head of Design to Creative Director. Do you have a reflection on your own time at East Fork?
It’s hard to believe it’s been eight years. It’s hard to believe I could do anything for eight years! But East Fork has given me a lot of space to show up as myself and build the job as time has gone on, which has kept a lot of the joy in it for me. I started as a contract graphic designer, working here part time and running my letterpress business and raising young kids the rest of the time.
Before my time here, I never really intended to be on a career track. I always meant to be an artist who somehow figures it out. I think I still bring that energy to work everyday, though I’m very aware of the privilege of getting to do that within the stability that a steady paycheck and health benefits provide. Before, I would have said I’ve done the job thing, I can only really work for myself, by myself. What became clear really quickly is that working on a team is actually the best thing for me. I wasn’t very kind to myself when I worked for clients. I could only see the flaws in what I made and I never felt like I was building on something, I felt like I was starting over with each job. I think I might have figured it out eventually, but here I’m super challenged by the people around me, and lifted up when I don’t feel like I have a lot to give, and get to work with this sense of continuity. I can’t linger on any one thing for too long, because the next thing is waiting for me. Working on photoshoots versus the “oil painter mentality” of always being able to go back and rework has helped me develop an in-the-moment approach to making that I’m very grateful for.
My time here has fundamentally challenged my relationship to creativity. Here, I get a continuous source of subject matter. We add new forms and products and colors, but the subject matter basically stays the same. That means I can try something, see how it feels and how it lands. I can drop it and pick it back up years later, and find something new in that process. Imperfection and incompletion have a function that I was never able to see before, which is huge for a recovering perfectionist. We’re not just making individual projects in a vacuum. We’re building, both on our successes and on our failures. I think this informs the way I like to lead the creatives on my team too. Room for experimentation, stumbling, stretching and revisiting has to be baked in.
Normally I’d ask for your favorite image, but everybody needs to see this stunning shot. How’d you do it?
Right? I can’t stop looking at it.
I came back from my sabbatical at the beginning of July and had to cram launch imagery, a full catalog’s worth of shoots into the three weeks that followed. I think because the time was so much more compressed since I was away (blissfully offline with my family in Nova Scotia!) I really struggled with our launch photos. Most of the time it just clicks (with a lot of planning and preparation and teamwork) but our first couple of shoots just didn’t have the magic I was holding out for. I was trying to make it too complicated.
In the end, Tim (contract photographer for East Fork) and I just shoehorned in an extra half day of shooting and I had not really promised much of anything to anyone which created more of a low pressure, play day. For this one we just cut sails of paper and stuck them to the side of the mixing bowl with little bits of putty, and moved them around until the curves were just right. A very simple set up, made impactful with the lighting genius of Tim Robison. I’ve had this vision the whole season for this portal, wormhole type imagery and wanted to play with concentric circles of our nesting set. It was a good reminder of the power of keeping things simple and allowing for play.
What other colors would pair well with Bittersweet & Nocturne?
I’ve been loving grouping Bittersweet and Nocturne with the colors that bridge the gap between them. La Sirène, Blue Ridge, Morel.
A few more!
Bittersweet + Panna Cotta
Nocturne + Bittersweet + Cosmos
Bittersweet + Harvest Moon
Nocturne + Eggshell
