From Shop Windows to Floral Tablescapes: Inside My Color Design Process

30 Jul

One of the questions I am asked most often by students is:

"Where do your colour palettes come from?"

The answer is rarely from flowers.

Instead, inspiration often begins while simply walking through a city.

During my recent travels La Rochelle I found myself stopping in front of beautifully curated shop windows. Fashion boutiques, design stores and carefully composed displays revealed unexpected combinations of colour, texture and rhythm. Most people admire the products. I study the relationships between colours.

I photographed these windows not because I wanted to recreate them, but because I wanted to understand why they worked.

This is the beginning of every design process.

Back in my holiday flat, I never copy what I have seen. Instead, I translate it. I reduce the visual language to its essential colour relationships and reinterpret them through flowers, vessels and composition.

The small table setting shown here is not a reproduction of a shop window. It is my personal interpretation of its atmosphere.

This process is something I encourage every student at Berlin Flower School to develop. Rather than following trends, I believe designers should learn to observe. Inspiration can come from architecture, fashion, interiors, paintings or even the changing colours of the sea. Once you understand colour, you begin to recognise beautiful combinations everywhere.

Working this way creates floral designs that feel original because they are rooted in observation rather than imitation.

For me, colour is a language. Every palette tells a story, evokes an emotion and creates an atmosphere before a single flower is noticed. This color plate is loud and energetic. Playful and contrasting.

These photographs invite you into that journey—from inspiration to interpretation, from observation to floral design.

Because beautiful design always begins long before the first stem is arranged.

Love Julia