We started out seeking a color palette that was different, stripping away all that is assumed about babies and kids. Why should great design stop at the nursery room door? Why not make toys that are so beautiful we’re not running around like crazy hiding them when company comes over? Why not let our international travels and backgrounds wash the toys with our love of world textiles and nature? Why not toys that are also fashion?

We could have settled for six colors, or eight. But no, we wanted the subtlety of shades between colors. The difference in ‘feel’ between oranges (my favorite color). Throwing bad luck to the winds, we went with thirteen.

Thirteen! We must tell you the factories were not thrilled. It’s hard work matching plastics. And expensive.

Pantone (the design industry standard for printing colors) did not work. We went to a dozen paint stores looking for exactly the right hues. And then went back again (pretending we were painting our homes) for many, many paint chips so factories could match our selections exactly.

And then we sat among these paint chips, without Pantone numbers for reference, and had to name them. With the love of mommies naming their newborns, we started brainstorming. And we labored and argued and debated about the exact tone of a tangerine versus a clementine, a yam versus a papaya. Finally most of our color names revolved around foods (maybe we were hungry).

And the B. color palette was born.

-Gisela