We live in a colorful world, but don’t often think about how these hues reflect the mood of the times. Here are some of the colors and combinations thereof that caught our attention in 2012.

What colors resonated with you this year?

1. The love affair between orange and red pop with pomegranate.

2. Louise Belcourt’s delightful mounds of color (p.s. we referred to this quite a bit when making tech-inspired palettes).

3. Getting glitzy and warming up winter with a gold rush.

4. Imagining a country life and thinking of Brazil’s influence with evergreen.

5. The vibrancy of “hawt” pink isn’t just for Parisians.

6. Palettes inspired by aztec culture.

7. The still life and pops of color in product photography.

8. Mike Meiré‘s balancing act in Economy of Attention.

9. Finding inspiration in Alighiero Boetti’s muted geometrics.

10. The rich and vibrant combinations from this Tibetan Sand Mandala Demonstration.