The Sound of Colour
Join Colour Designer Sarah Gottlieb as she talks to cultural and creative leaders about the most influential colours in their lives and work. Through insightful conversations you hear about the meaning and psychology of colours through the guest's personal story about their own creative work.
In each episode, we ask guests to talk about their passion for colour and where it comes from. We review a significant piece of our guest’s work where colour has played an important role, and also where they find inspiration – ending each episode with the musical element "the sound of a colour”.
Be prepared for laughter, tears and everything in between.
The Sound of Colour
Alex Proba – Emotional Design in Sunset Hues and Swimming Pool Blues
Have you ever thought about how intuition — not theory — can be the most powerful tool in colour-driven design?
Join us as we explore the power of colour with multidisciplinary designer and artist Alex Proba, whose instinctive and joyful approach to design defies conventional rules and embraces colour as a tool for emotional connection.
From furniture and murals to immersive interiors and an 8,000-tile swimming pool in Miami, Alex Proba’s work is rooted in feeling, memory, and a desire to spark happiness. Her designs are vibrant, expressive, and often surprising—guided not by trends or moodboards, but by lived experience and natural observation.
In this episode, Alex shares how she cultivates an intuitive relationship with colour, why she avoids visual trends, and how even the colours she dislikes have an essential role to play. We also explore the deeper purpose behind her work: making people feel good.
And most importantly, she reminds us that design doesn’t have to follow rules to be powerful. Sometimes, it just has to feel right.
Wrapping up this episode with the musical experiment “The Sound of a Colour”, composed by our season’s musician-in-residence, Sofie Søe, the artist behind ALOO. This time, she creates the sound of Rosy Peach.
Alex is one of the most focused and uncompromising creatives I’ve spoken with—her clarity of vision and intuitive approach to colour make for a truly inspiring conversation. Happy listening!
For more color inspiration follow @sarah__gottlieb and this episode's guest @alexproba and the podcast musician @aloo_music
This episode is sponsored by Flügger and Montana Furniture and is supported by The Danish Arts Foundation.
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The Sound of Colour is produced and hosted by Sarah Gottlieb, with music by Matt Motte.
The host
Sarah Gottlieb is a Copenhagen-based designer and art director specialising in colour and spatial design. Known for transforming environments through innovative use of colour, she is dedicated to creating public spaces that inspire connection and a deeper appreciation for design.
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For images and information from each episode go to the Podcast website
Hi, my name is Sarah Gottlieb and you are listening to the Sound of Color. I'm a designer and I work with colors in spatial design, product design and branding. In this podcast, you will meet a series of influential guests in the field of design and architecture, who will all share their personal stories and expert knowledge on and about colors. Together, we will delve into the magic of color and its significance in the world of design.
Alex Proba:There's colors I really dislike, but I use them all the time.
Sarah Gottlieb:This episode of the Sound of Color is supported by Pflugger and Montana Furniture, two sponsors who share my love for color and design. Pflugger is my go-to paint brand. They've been around since 1783 and truly know their way around quality, craftsmanship and, of course, color. Life's too short for bad paint right. Montana Furniture's mission is to create playful spaces through colors, whether it's in a home, a lobby, an office or a concert hall. They bring vibrant furniture and strong color identity into every kind of space. Honestly, they're just as color obsessed as I am. Big thanks to both Flygge and Montana Furniture for supporting this episode and to the Danish Arts Foundation for their support of the podcast. They all bring more color, creativity and conversation into the world. Now let's get back to the episode. Hi, alex, hi, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming. The guest in this episode is designer Alex Prober.
Alex Proba:At that point I decided that I want my art to make people happy and feel something good.
Sarah Gottlieb:Alex Prober is a German-born, portland and Brooklyn-based artist and designer and the founder of Studio Prober.
Sarah Gottlieb:Her work spans murals, furniture, product design and large-scale public installations, including playful collaborations with brands like Nike and Google, all of it instantly recognizable for their bold, intuitive use of color and form. Her creative journey began in a monochrome home shaped by her doctor parents, but a formative exchange year in the Urome home shaped by her doctor parents, but a formative exchange year in the US opened her eyes to design, leading her to leave a career as a dentist behind and pursue her passion. Alex's approach to color is deeply intuitive and emotional. Rather than following rules or theories, she lets feeling guide her choices, creating compositions that spark joy and emotional resonance. In this episode, we talk about how she used color to create happiness, why she avoids external inspiration yes, instagram and Pinterest, we're looking at you and how nature remains her biggest muse. She also shares the story behind one of her most ambitious projects to date an 8,000-tile hand-laced swimming pool in Miami that turned a technical challenge into a breathtaking underwater artwork. So let's dive into a conversation about intuition, joy and bold expression with Alex Prober.
Alex Proba:It's funny because my family they're originally from Poland and in the 80s, before I was born, my parents kind of like escaped communism in Poland and made a way to Germany and at some point I was born in Germany and at some point they were able to get, like my grandmother and grandfather, over as well. Once they were, like you know, had to asylum and were citizens at some point, and so both of them are doctors. So my household was very black and white Even. I think the only color we had at home was navy, like navy curtains, and everything else was like black and white. And until today I don't think much my dad or my mom care about color at all.
Alex Proba:And my only constant in that life was my grandma, because she used to be a florist back in Poland and she gave up her career as a florist, like in her 40s, late 40s, to like take care of me and my brother, and so she came with my grandfather to Germany and she couldn't really have the floors like the floor store, any flower store anymore. But that didn't keep her from like being in the garden, having like a whole garden, patch roses everywhere and every day just like cooking for us as well, and I think, um until today she's still alive, she's 87, and until today she wears like pattern on patterns, like striped pants with flower shirts and just colorful, every like, always amazing and I think that was like my first like introduction to color that was making me happy outside of my home that wasn't colorful.
Alex Proba:And then I did spend most of my vacation time like school holidays and things like that with my grandma, and most of the time we would I would be just painting and painting flowers, florals and things like that super realistic, actually not the same way that I work now, but very realistic, uh, depictions of flowers and gardens and med and I actually, for my mom's office, I painted like this whole series of like medical herbs and flowers. She still has them up, wow, in her office and um, yeah. And then I think when I turned like 15, I went to Ohio for an exchange program for like a year to actually just to study my English and, to, you know, have an experience outside of Germany. And I ended up in a family that was the opposite of my family. They were actually very big into art.
Alex Proba:My mom used to be a designer back in the day in the 80s at DKNY in New York and all weekends were just like spent in museums and things like that and but their house is like quite amazing too, because she decorated and painted and did the whole interior. So like the kitchen is kind of like a glass atrium kitchen, but, um, the table is pink, there's flowers hanging off the ceiling, and you entered the other room, the next room, which was the living room, that had all blue kind of like lime wash walls but she painted like written like poems on the wall that friends sent her like. It was like wow. And then the next room we would go, it was all like gold leaf kind of walls, and so for me I was just like what, what, what's happening? Like where am I?
Sarah Gottlieb:and think it sounds like the extreme opposite.
Alex Proba:Yeah, extreme opposite. And I think there I was always into making and doing and drawing and having art. And I think there somehow my host mom, she like figured out that part of me and so she kind of, you know, brought me to museums and took me to art classes. And my art teacher he also was like, oh, you should do something with this, you're really talented. And I was like, yeah, no, I'm going to be a doctor, I'm going to be a dentist or something. And so when I got back and I'm still really close to my family in Ohio and it's been like almost 30 years or something, so it's a long time ago and so when I got back to Germany again to finish school, my parents just thought like, oh yeah, it's just like a hobby that just intensified, or something Like they didn't really think about it much, me actually neither. And then I actually ended up going to dentistry, to medical college and school.
Sarah Gottlieb:Oh, you did.
Alex Proba:Yeah, I did. And while I was doing that, I kind of was like what am I doing? Like this is not what I want to be doing, this is not fun, I don't want to like what am I doing? And so I applied secretly to design and architecture school, Like it was architecture, interior architecture and graphic design. It's a private school and it just seemed more safe than going to art school because I was scared.
Alex Proba:Because my parents, you know, they were like art is a hobby, you can't, you know, you need something very safe and I mean they gave up everything for us in a way to make a better life for us, Right? So I think me going against and going to art or design school, it was like a pretty big shock for my dad. Actually, my mom was like, oh, thank God you were, as a dentist, like you know, like never imagined that. But yeah, my dad had to get really hard and I think that bit of him taking it so hard made like a fire under my butt, right, I really wanted to prove him wrong, that I can do it.
Sarah Gottlieb:And Alex was seriously on fire, studying and working across Berlin, new York and the Netherlands. She started out in architecture but gradually found her way into the world of design. But how did her distinctive use of color emerge during that journey?
Alex Proba:I mean it's funny because I think I personally always was very colorful and drawn to color and I think that's why I was seeking art, as you know, as like an outlet as a, as a, as a kid and teenager and, and I think in the practical way that I found kind of my language is, you know, I just had limited time after work because, like working in agencies in New York, like it's not like a cushy 10 to 5 and you go home and you have time. You know, sometimes you work all night, sometimes you work the weekend. So I think my time was very limited on what I could do outside of work. So I decided, just for my sanity, I think in 2012 or 13, I decided just to make like a daily project where I do like a daily graphic or like the daily poster a day.
Sarah Gottlieb:Yeah.
Alex Proba:Just for myself, just to like practice, but also share it on Instagram, knowing that my friends will see it, and kind of having like accountability to do it every day, because if I wouldn't post it no one would know and I couldn't be held accountable. And so I did that and for a long time and I think around and in the beginning, beginning it was just like testing things and styles and it was kind of my diary every night. It was like kind of what I ate that night or had the. You know, it was like very like the patterns I saw the day off and I think my audience was like 30 people on Instagram that was all my friends and and out of nowhere, it's like started to like pick up interest and I think around day 100 or 110 or something, a lot of like press would write about it. I think Sight Unseen was the first one that wrote about it and I was like, oh my God, sight Unseen would write about this.
Sarah Gottlieb:And I also like the stamina. You're saying like on day 100 or something. You know it's not like.
Alex Proba:Oh yeah, I did it for a long time, no-transcript idea why it like went crazy. And then the second year, I opened it up to like, instead of being my diary, you tell me stories and submit on my website what you want to tell me. But I didn't put a brief edit, I didn't say 100 words, I was just tell me whatever you want me to know and what you want to be translated in a visual, graphic, poster thing. Funny enough, I got a lot of sad stories, like so many sad stories, just like very, from cancer to rape to addiction, and I was just like, oh my God, like what am I doing? I'm not going to start making black, red, bloody posters, because that's not who I am, but that's also not probably what the people come from. Right, they're actually telling me some anonymous, anonymous, some actually without like with their name. They telling me something that you know they really wanted to tell me and wanted to have as a print.
Alex Proba:So so, yeah, so I quickly decided to only take even the most sad, negative stories and make it positive and use color and use vibrancy in it, and I think at that point I decided that I want my art to like make people happy and feel something good, versus be like a commentary, direct commentary on their feelings or like a direct commentary on politics or the world. I think there's like so much negativity out there anyway that I quickly decided it was like kind of my personal therapy, realizing that my life, how good my life actually is and how lucky I am being able to do this, because there's just like so much sad out there and so yeah, so that was kind of the tipping point where I decided not necessarily to make it colorful, but to make it positive. Always, like all my work I do, I want to be joyful and positive.
Sarah Gottlieb:There's something incredibly powerful about Alex's story, stretching from her parents' escape from communism in Poland All the way to her colorful illustrations Of other people's everyday struggles and life challenges. What's remarkable is that Alex made a clear decision these illustrations, despite their heavy themes, should radiate joy and positivity. But why does she believe that color has the power to bring us happiness?
Alex Proba:I think it just stimulates your senses and I think in my way, I think with colors plus, like the random combinations of colors, or some people, you know, wouldn't put the colors I put together necessarily together and I in my head sometimes wouldn't put them together, but they actually work. And I think colors and like the simple shapes and patterns that everyone can kind of relate to, from no matter what age, and I think you know that's like just looking at at it makes you happy. And I think colors you know, like if you go into like a black room, painted black room, I don't think you necessarily feel happiness. But as soon you walk into a room that has many colors inside, or like my green wall behind me, like, I feel like you instantly, you know, have that feeling of like, oh, this is so friendly and calming and and I think your psyche is definitely influenced by it and my studio that you see just the background of like is I have a pink tape, like I have so many colors in my studio and the other half of the studio is my husband's office, so it's not very colorful but he's adding actually more color now. But it's funny when visitors come, they like walk through and they're like, oh, this is so happy just entering this place, but but that's like the or, like you know, that's just like what people say and I think, even knowing most people don't really think about color as much as I think about it, I guess it is something that affects you right.
Alex Proba:Like a yellow kitchen is something very different than like a really dark, muted kitchen.
Alex Proba:And I think why we like flowers and nature is exactly because it gives you the sense of freedom and joy. And I think most of my work work, actually the shapes that I use they come from nature and florals and animals and and patterns you see in the everyday, and I think that that whole thing and the pattern clashes. That whole thing is my grandma like 100%, like instilled in me and then paired with that project that I started with, it all kind of fell together and makes sense now and I think there's not necessarily I know there's a color theory telling you blue makes you calm and red makes you hungry, and I don't necessarily believe in it because, like, my whole bedroom is like painted in, like mostly like reds and maroons and it's a mural, but it's like in all these like very hungry colors and I really am not hungry when I'm in my bedroom, so I'm not sure how I agree with that, but I think it's just like very personal what it makes you feel.
Sarah Gottlieb:I really agree with Alex. It's not as simple as saying this color makes everyone calm, this one makes you hungry or that one makes you tired. As she points out, our personal experiences play a huge role in how we respond to color, and that's exactly why I created my musical experiment, the Sound of a Color. So now I'm really excited to find out which color will Alex choose.
Alex Proba:So this one is like a really hard one because um and I think you get that answer probably all the time and it's I don't have a favorite color. I just really don't. I think it's really about like, what color pairs with what and in what setting, and I think there's colors I really dislike, but I use them all the, and I use them because they go with the rest and kind of like balance everything together. But I'm not a fan of orange, for example. It's not like my favorite color, but then you look at my work, everything is like has orange in it and I think that's just because it's a really good color that complements all the rest and like balances stuff out. And I think you know that's similar with like maroons, even though I like maroon, but maroon is like a good color to just, like you know, bring it all like back to like center, and so if I would have to pick a color, I think it would be um, and I think I the object that I picked too, is not an object but um.
Alex Proba:We have a place on on the coast in oregon which is like right at the ocean and it has the craziest sunsets, like it's really just really like the craziest and it's funny because every every summer and like fall day, I run down to the beach just to like get the sunset and my uh, like my husband ian, is always just like wait, do you have so many sun?
Alex Proba:You saw, so what are you doing?
Alex Proba:Like there's so many on your phone, like in your camera, like it's okay if you miss one, and like no, they're always different.
Alex Proba:And I think the color that I referencing to is kind of when the sunset already, like already is past, or is right before it, and it makes this sky kind of more like a pinkish, peachy, purpley, like blue tone, and that's kind of when the sun is already down.
Alex Proba:So I'm not talking about the orange, bright yellow, burning fire of sunset, but kind of the ones that right before and right after and it turns like once, like even the orangey left leaves, it turns even this really light haze of like this rosy color. It's like very beautiful and it looks, and then in the sand and the water looks silver. So I think it's like that kind of moment, um, and I think that one just brings like so much joy in me and I think it's just like so beautiful to watch that color change coming off from like one source, and obviously then there's the blue sky that turns slowly into gray and, you know, fades away. But I think maybe we could call that color like a rosy peach or something like that rosy peach is a nice name as well for a color.
Sarah Gottlieb:I think you sent me some photos of this as well. It's absolutely stunning and I guess all listeners also get the experience of seeing a sunset. It's like nature's magic. I just wanted to say one thing. I wanted to ask you another question, which is a bit, as you said, maybe also one of the hard questions for people to answer. But if we're kind of staying with that notion that colors touches, touch us on all kind of our senses, if you had to describe this, uh, rosy peach color to a person who's blind, who's never seen a color, what, how would you describe the sensation of seeing that?
Alex Proba:color. I think, uh, it also is very deep in the setting where you see it, right, like if you see it in the sky, in nature, like it's something really like magical and like you just like can't even imitate that color, right, do you also like that? One sunset? I send you like, um, I think the first image, that was like in November, uh, two years ago, and that never happened again in that color, and so I keep because it was almost like a iridescent kind of look and there's like no photoshopping or anything in that image, and so I think that's part of why I keep going back to try to like get that moment back again, because you just feel like so small and not unimportant but you just like feel like you just like this tiny little speck in this like big earth that surrounds you and I think the nature creates like the most beautiful things and I think, being inspired by nature in my work, like that's like a big, like a big moment, and it's just like this slow, like it puts you like to sleep and calms down, kind of like a slow leaf fading gradient and you know, because it starts with that explosion of orange and it's like a crazy sunset and then it just calms you down and then you kind of feel like you had a good day and it's ready, you know you can go to bed and drink a tea and you know sleep well.
Alex Proba:I think it's like a very dreamlike kind of color and I think even if you would paint your kitchen in something like that, I think you might have to like, instead of just having like a flat pinkish peach, I think you might have to. Instead of just having a flat pinkish peach, I think you would have to get that gradient in it a little bit to feel that calmness almost.
Sarah Gottlieb:Listening to Alex describe that November sunset, I found myself pausing for a moment, picturing the light, the calm, the warmth of it. It's a memory that clearly stayed with her and it's what inspired her to choose rosy peach as the color for this episode's musical experiment. But how does a color like rosy peach sound when it's turned into music? Hi Sophie, hi Sarah, so great to have you back. I'm really happy that we're going to share this musical experiment for lots of episodes.
Sofie Søe:Me too. Thank you for inviting me again. That's so great.
Sarah Gottlieb:For this season of the Sound of Color, I'm so excited to announce an ongoing collaboration with musician and producer Sophie Sø. Sophie is the artist behind Alou, an experimental electro-pop project that blends rich synthesizer drum machines and cinematic strings with her powerful yet sensitive vocals. Since releasing her debut EP Fur and the following up Berlin, alou has gained international attention with singles like Paint you in Red and Don't Wanna Wait, resonating across Germany, italy and the UK. With a background in mathematics, computer science and music, sophie brings a truly unique approach to sound Analytical, emotional and endlessly curious. I'm so happy she'll be creating the musical interpretations of each guest's chosen color for all the episodes of season two. Together we will be exploring what color sounds like.
Sarah Gottlieb:Now let's get back to the episode. Okay, so this time the sound of a color experiment is based on a color chosen by this episode's guest, who is a designer artist called alex probe. She's quite known for like her patterns and bold colors in her work, and also a thing that we actually talk a lot about in this episode is that we talk about how her she really wants her work to bring joy and happiness, and so when I asked her to pick a color, she said that she had this obsession with sunsets and photographing them, even to the degree that her boyfriend maybe is a little bit mocking her with all her photographs. She's to be like isn't it the same, but she's like no. So she actually showed me these photos from a very specific november sunset. That was really magical, she thought, because of all the hues in the skies and I think you and the listeners kind of know, know the experience of seeing a sunset where it's like it's a magic of, like color tricks in the skies changing from the blue to the orange to the red, all these colors, oh my god, yeah, yeah. And so that's like what inspired her to pick this color that she wants to hear the sound of, and the color is rosy peach, and she was describing this like.
Sarah Gottlieb:I'll show you the photographs that, um, she sent me here. They are well, and we were talking about these and she was like she said, like she always finds the kind of how do you call it? Like the, the color in the horizon that really changes, and this is where she's looking towards this, almost like an orange color, and the only reason we actually called it peachy rose was because her least favorite color is actually orange. Yeah, okay, but somehow actually there's kind of this orange color in all her work. Wow, but she was like it's just a color that kind of ties everything together and it's a good glue between lots of other colors. So that's the reason why she wants to hear this color, yeah. So what's your immediate thoughts when you look at this rosy peach?
Sofie Søe:well, it's. Uh, it's funny that you mentioned that that she doesn't like orange actually, because I myself don't like orange very much, but this color I really, really love it. Like I am a sucker for sunsets, like I go to the beach every time I'm in my parents summer house like to watch the sunset and yeah, it's just, there's something magical like happening in the mind. I think at sunsets, like I just disappear into nature for a moment and it's like meditative and calm in a in a way I can't explain or like can't find otherwise.
Sarah Gottlieb:Like it's, it's very special I agree with you on that one, that's. And if you so what do you think? Like um, do you have any thoughts on how you're gonna approach rosy peach musically?
Sofie Søe:yeah, so it would probably be with these feelings in mind. I'm curious now to dive into why do I get these feelings Like? Because I realize it's pretty special color for me also, and I'm not really sure why. Yeah, I'm going to definitely try and do some research on it.
Sarah Gottlieb:Yeah, and I love when you say dive into it and research, because I know that you have a specific way of going about things. Can you explain what would be like your process of like you say, like you're curious, like why am I getting this? Like what? What's your approach to them investigating it?
Sofie Søe:like for now it's, it's very open. I'm gonna ask google a lot of questions. Google is a nice person to talk to. Yeah, like I think I I'm. I'm curious about the biologic aspects of it actually Also because I have a concussion and I have post-concussion syndrome, which for me means that my vision is affected and I can get really triggered by some colors. Really.
Sarah Gottlieb:Yeah, and light, yeah, of course, I've heard that as well before. But also colors, yeah, which makes sense in a way when you say light, because colors is light yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sofie Søe:So rosy peach like actually is nice for my eyes to look at and I recently talked to some concussion experts and they say a lot of concussed people like these like red, yellow colors, these warm colors, wow, interesting. You can even get filter glasses in these colors to filter out some of the blue and green or white, like I guess I'm not sure, but something like that to make it easier for your brain to process these colors. Okay interesting.
Sarah Gottlieb:yeah, I think all sounds very exciting and very calming. I look forward to see you again and hear your version of rosy peach too. I'm so excited to hear Sophie's musical take on Rosy Peach, but while she's working on that, we're going to hear about one of Alex Prober's major projects where color plays a central role. Alex chose to tell us about one of the swimming pools she's designed, a project where her love of color really comes to life.
Alex Proba:Yeah. So this specific one is actually just we just launched it, or it was just completed last december in miami for a private client, and it's a pool and art pool made out of over 8 000 custom organic hand-cut tiles and all hand glazed and everything, and it's like wow, yeah, it's like a work of art really, um, and of a lot of love and labor, and so it's basically like a big puzzle inside of a pool and then, once you put water on it, you know it has like a second life as well. But that project kind of started or or happened, because I was like obsessed with making a pool mural work at. So I started like in 2018. I was just like this is is like I need to do this, I want to do this. I don't know how, but I started just doing renders and putting them on my Instagram and being like hey, anyone has a pool for me. And then, in 2020, I got my first pool in Ranchero Mirage, which is close to Palm Springs, and the clients were like, yeah, we have a pool for you. You, you know like, let's do it now, and I was just like, cool, I don't even know how to do this because, um, it's actually really hard because the paint doesn't exist. The pool paint doesn't exist in the colors I wanted, and I was just like, what did I get myself into? But I think that's like my personality in general and I always want to figure out the impossible, and so all the and so I challenged myself to figure it out and I want to make it happen and I did, and um, so I did a couple pools and like where we painted murals inside.
Alex Proba:But, um, with the latest one, uh, deciding a on the tile, is because the client just built a brand new pool and I was like you don't want to paint it because paint, paint is paint, even if it's pool paint. It's gonna not last forever, it's gonna fade with the sunlight and not like extremely anything, but it's not. I wouldn't do it in like a very new build of a house or I wouldn't paint recommend it to do it in like hotels with like high usage. And so I told the client I was like we can make it out of this tile that, um, you know, it's like all organic shapes and it fits my. It will be like my artworks and everything is handmade and it's going to cost a little much, but we can do this and, um, I didn't have any examples to show either, right, because that was like. So I was just like we can.
Alex Proba:And then she, and so I thought she's never going to go for it because, a I couldn't prove my concept well, because I'd never done it before, and then, b it's not affordable. So, um, but yeah, one day I got an email. She's like, let's do it. And I was just like, oh, my god, that's so amazing.
Alex Proba:So then it like all started because, like, then you know, I had my manufacturing partners out in guadalajara, in mexico, and I have worked with them before that. But I was just like they're experts in like ceramics and everything they do. And so I was like, okay, cool, let's do this. And so I it started from like me doing the design, kind of basing it off, um, on the location of miami, and to kind of also wanted it super vibrant and like poppy, and if they wanted it to like be the statement piece of like the, the home. And then the other, um, the other part is like that I kind of wanted to have this like little art coral reef, almost right. So like have like a homage to like our world around us because, um, their coral reefs are dying and, and you know, just having like a little little hint of for people to like.
Alex Proba:Maybe you know care a little bit more, like I don't want to make a big statement always of my work, but it's just like a small hint to um something that you know I care about and and so, yeah, we started with the design and um trying to figure out, like, what clay to use, what colors we can use, and, um, does it have to be shiny or matte? And we decided it had to be matte tile because you don't want to have the kids play and slip. And so it like goes into like, from designing it into all this technicality, and then you have to really work with everyone because the pool itself is handmade right, so even though it looks straight, it's not necessarily perfectly straight. So, um, so I think there's like a lot of like back and forth with, like, all the measurements of, like the, the proofing of the pool for waterproofing, and then you have to go back, remeasure and then, um, but meanwhile we started like um glazing all the tiles square tiles, yeah, in the correct colors. So once we had the final layout, we did like a layout on the computer with all the eight thousand over eight thousand tiles. Oh, my god, then we're all coded. Yeah, they were all coded by, uh, you know, section number and everything. So, uh, during shipping, if something breaks, like we will know, okay, tile c2a broke, let's remake c2a exactly the same way. So, like, we have to have those templates. So, because tile is, you know, ceramic, it break, like it breaks during shipping, it breaks pretty easily and and so we had to do all this work.
Alex Proba:And then, um, once that was all done and confirmed, with measurements, like then, just like you start cutting it into the shapes you wanted, and then you have to, like, polish the edges again, and then you have to lay it out in the, in the, in the factory, to see if that everything fits or if you have to remake something. And then you have to individually pack them too, because they can't be packed together. So they, like you kind of have styrofoam mat, like mats, where you cut out the shape of the tile to place them in, and then you know, you ship it out, and then you realize which ones broke, and right away then you contact, you know, we contacted my manufacturer, and they were like we need this whole list broke, we need all of them. And then you know, and then the puzzle starts again, but inside of a pool and with stairs and steps and edges and water filters, and so there's a lot of cutting still on site, obviously because to make it work.
Alex Proba:But, um, yeah, so it was like a almost like a two-year project because we had to learn a lot with this one. I mean now we could make a pool way faster, but I think, because it's the first one, you kind of have to learn a lot and I think everyone, though the whole time was kind of very positive, very excited. There was, like you know, the client had so much patience also with it and I think now they have the coolest pool, um, that exists.
Alex Proba:They definitely have the coolest pool, yeah, in Miami or in the world yeah, and it's um, it was really fun to even watch like the install. And again, people comment like I got so many um, so for architecture digest. They actually saw the. They went to visit the factory in Guadalajara outside of my pool, just like to visit, and they saw the pool being made and so they emailed me like hey, can we have the exclusives? And I was just like sure, I mean, the pool is not even done yet. Right, that was like a year and a half before.
Alex Proba:But I think again, um, seeing that process, seeing colors, seeing what it could be, a lot of people had like a lot of joy from it too.
Alex Proba:And then even the installers which is a hard part is to install and even them were just like this is like so hard, but we're having like such a good time doing it because it's so, because you actually have to think and you have to like you know, and it was really hard because it was really hot too in miami, and so they were just like dripping sweat, trying to like install it and and with every little step and the artwork kind of built like look cooler and cooler.
Alex Proba:And then, and then, yeah, once you put the water on, I was actually surprised because of the painted pools you see the color pretty well, but the color actually the blue of the water mixes with the paint visually, so all the yellow colors kind of look more green, or you know, like it kind of was like the regular color theory of mixing blue on top of whatever color, yeah, and so I expected it to happen in this one too and it didn't. And I have no idea why, because the depth it's similar deepness and like it doesn't make any sense. But I think whatever the pigment of the tile is different than the pigment of the paint, because you can see every color in the pool as the color that the tile actually is, which is kind of crazy.
Sarah Gottlieb:The swimming pool in Miami is truly incredible Vibrant, bold and completely one-of-a-kind. It's fascinating to see those bright colors on glazed ceramic tiles, giving a depth and a texture that a painted surface just wouldn't have. It made me wonder does Alex work with a specific color palette when starting a project like the Miami pool?
Alex Proba:I don't, I actually just design it and intuition or my insight just picks the color immediately and the combination immediately, and I never really think about it. The only time I think about it is when I, you know, obviously I look at the place and the setting and where it's going. If it's like a restaurant I look at, is it all wood and mark, like what you know, like, look at the place and the setting and where it's going. If it's like a restaurant I look at, is it all wood and mark, like what you know, like what I, kind of? So I look at that first and then my brain directly goes like okay, and then I just do it and it's funny.
Alex Proba:The only time I do think about color is when the client is like but I don't like yellow, and I'm like oh, interesting, cool, right, so like, try to figure out like a different kind of setup, because the client doesn't like yellow, whatever the color they don't like, and mostly, though like 90% of the time, even though we adjust colors after to like, make it more fit to what the client wanted, let's say they go back to the original one and like 90% of the time, even because, like I said with like I don't like orange but I like orange in the mix of things. Right, and I think a lot of clients sometimes have the same realization, but they kind of need to see proof first that the like that that is the best version. But I think, yeah, 90% of the time we go back to the one that I originally created and I think, yeah, I'm not the designer that puts out like Pantone swatches or colors or I don't do that, even like painting murals. You know, sometimes I buy all the colors and then on site I'm just like, oh, I kind of don't like this color, and then I just like mix colors on site myself and just like figure out what fits better.
Alex Proba:But I never really, yeah, sit there and think about it much and I have no idea how or where this is coming from. But sometimes, like with like friends or other people like sometimes they email me like, hey, we're struggling with colors, can you just quickly do the colors? And I'm like, yeah, I can do that real quick. And hey, we're struggling with colors, can you just quickly do the colors? And I'm like, yeah, I can do that real quick and I just do it real quick without knowing much about the project sometimes and they're like oh, this is great, thanks. Like it just comes really naturally to me and I have no explanation really how or why.
Sarah Gottlieb:It's interesting to hear that Alex doesn't start a project with a fixed color palette. Instead, she works more intuitively, guided by feeling and instinct, and when you look back at some of her other projects, that really makes sense. She's created quite a few works using more muted and understated tones.
Alex Proba:She explains that stepping back and exploring softer palettes is just as meaningful as going bold, because for Alex it all comes down to the space and the kind of feeling it calls for I mean it's important too because I think it depends on the space and I mean I do have pieces that are that, but I think there's just, you know, the feeling of joy that comes with like a lot of colors, and then I think there's the feeling of kind of just like calmness and belonging. If it's like muted colors, like there's always like a place in time for color, I think, and there's a place of time for non-color colors, right, like my home, even like my bedroom, because that's the least time I spend in the room. It's like my bedroom and my bathroom upstairs. That one is the craziest color, it's like from the whole space. And then the one space that I'm actually spent most time in is the kitchen and the living area. All walls are actually white, but all the elements that I added, from like rugs to the art and the things I collect, and those are colors Right. So I think they. But you don't walk into that room and they're like, oh wow, like my bedroom. You walk in and you're just like, oh God, that's crazy. But you don't do that with like, but you still feel happy because there's other colors surrounding you and I think it's always like about the kind of like the balance that you want to strike and the feel that you want to, you want to have.
Alex Proba:And I just talked to a client she's interested in like the tile pools and she shared, like her, her house which she's building. It's very mid-century, very like greenery around, but everything is like natural wood and it's very warm in like, in like tonality, and so I was like you know, like happy, we should totally do this pool, but how about we make it not as colorful? Because I don't know if it actually fits in your space and I don't think you know, let's just use, like, well, terracottas and beiges. And she was like, oh, you can do that. I was like, yeah, we can do whatever color you know, like you want.
Alex Proba:And I think you know it would be really cool if that project happens, because it could be like a cool way, in contrast, to like the two pools being completely different, but both colorful and very effectful and many different for many different reasons. And I think it's not like I don't want to do color, I love doing color. I think it's just that I'm happy to do muted as well, and I think that people just don't expect that or know that, and even her. She thought she will have to do like a super colorful one.
Sarah Gottlieb:I was like no, actually you don't alex prober seems completely unafraid to play with shapes, colors, surfaces and materials, but where does she find her?
Alex Proba:own inspiration, working in agencies and design studios and so on. Like you spend a lot of time on like Pinterest and looking at other people's designs and art and trends and putting them on the wall and collecting that, and I think I'm very anti-swipe, like I am not, like I don't like to do it, I don't like to look at it, I don't want to be influenced by it, and so I think I personally, for my work, don't look at Pinterest, don't look. I mean, obviously I look at Instagram and it like there is inspiration that probably comes like accidentally, almost without me looking for it, um, but yeah, but mostly it's like the everyday, like I, you know, like the sunset that I was describing, or my walk with my dog, like on the trail in the parks, with the waterfalls, with different kind of species and butterflies and things that you just see, and I think, um, those patterns that you see in the world. That's kind of what inspires me and I try as much as I can not to, not to look at other people's work or designs and for, like, if it's related to my work, obviously, like when I need a new couch, I'll go to. You know, I look at things and what's around there, or, but I think for my work, even when I have a designer, she's in Paris. She sometimes is like she's like a like.
Alex Proba:Every now and then, when I have a lot of projects and need some help, she's like helps me, and then one other in Austria and those two like otherwise it's just like mostly me, and then I have like paint assistants to like execute murals and so on, but in the studio and artwork and everything it's just me and and so even with them it's like they're like do you have like inspiration images?
Alex Proba:Sometimes I was like Nope, like no, it's just just use your brain, you just go, you know, just do what you know feels right. And I think now they've been working with me for a long time so they know exactly what I'm looking for and what I'm doing and what I'm not doing, and so I think that was a very conscious decision, though, after spending so much time in agencies, and that's kind of how it works. And then in the end, everything blends together and looks the same and you go to like here in the US, you go to Target, which you know, you know and every and, yes, it's nice packaging and nice design and nice typefaces, but they all look the same.
Alex Proba:Yeah, and I think that's that's what is happening. I think a lot nowadays, because we can see everything everywhere very fast, and I think when I started with my work which is now 13 years, yeah, like 13 years ago of that kind of type of work and, um, it was challenging because now, like shapes or abstract art like things, like like shapes are so, so popular and so at some point I was like, oh man, like that's kind of hurting my business, you know, on my artworks. But you know, like I just keep going and continuing doing mine, because I know it's mine versus I took it from somewhere else. But yeah, it's really hard because something like catches on and becomes trendy and I think color is similar. Like color became such a big trend in the last I don't know 15 years and I mean we did have color before that in the 80s and you know, but it was a kind of a different color and it was a little bit more.
Sarah Gottlieb:Yeah.
Alex Proba:You know, right now, every furniture company has like a catalog of like 20 colors to choose from, and you know like which is great. But I think that you know, it's just very easy to be influenced nowadays, and so I try not to be.
Sarah Gottlieb:Yeah, I think that's the perfect note to end today is to try not to be influenced and listen to your own brain and like your own eyes and how you experience the world. Yep Well, thank you, alex, for being a guest.
Alex Proba:Thank you so much for having me.
Sarah Gottlieb:That was fun. A big thank you to Alex for so generously. That was fun. A big thank you to alex for so generously sharing her thoughts on color and on life. Now all that's left is to hear what sophie has created from alex's sunset inspired color rosy peach. Hi sophie, I'm back. Hi sarah, good to see you.
Sofie Søe:So you have worked on interpreting the color rosy peach, yes, and I'm excited to hear the musical take that you've come up with yeah, I had all these thoughts that we talked about last time we saw each other and before I went to start the piece, I was like, what is it like? What makes this color calm? Yeah, I wanted to know more about the scientific background for this color, so I got some help from Google and chat GPT and, yeah, apparently it has a number of reasons why it's so soothing to us. Tell us. Okay, so there is something biological. First of all, we get attracted to mates who have this color, for example, in their cheeks, because it signals health and fertility and emotion.
Sofie Søe:It's like the blood flow is creating this color basically, your blood flow is good, mate season is on, exactly like we like quick description, yeah exactly amazing, yeah, and and infants also, early in life, they respond positively to this skin tone color, and so I also found out some really interesting things. What did you find out that like? There are several reasons why, like why we might us who have a concussion we might like like these colors more. They have a longer wavelength because it's like more red ish and because it's like it's muted a little bit. It's not a very high saturation color. It doesn't have a lot of contrast and that makes it easier for the brain to process this is not just for people with concussions, this is for everyone.
Sofie Søe:But when you have, like, a healing brain, it's very nice that it doesn't get too much of a crazy input to process. Yeah, so basically this is this made so much sense, like yeah, it's like there's a reduced, like visual overload and how okay that's, I like that.
Sarah Gottlieb:How, um, how and how did you then approach that kind of google knowledge as scientific knowledge into your um?
Sofie Søe:to this musical interpretation of rosy peach yeah, um, I really took this like baby view into account, like, okay, there's a, like a baby finding calmness, like how can I recreate that musically? And, as we also talked about last time, like I wanted it to not be too challenging. It has to be nice and not move around too much, be pretty, like easy for the brain, just like the color, to understand, so we don't use so much processing power. Yeah, also because I read about this rosy peach activates our parasympathetic nervous system yeah, which is the like, kind of like anti-stress nervous system?
Sarah Gottlieb:I would kind of call it in a very scientific way.
Sofie Søe:Yeah, it's like the opposite of the. It's the one that calms us and takes away the stress. So getting into like activating the parasympathetic nervous system is like very good for a lot of people because we live in a crazy everyday life, hectic world. Yeah, yes okay.
Sarah Gottlieb:So then you found out with the pair like you wanted to, like you know that the that color talks to the parasympathetic. I can't say that yeah parasympathetic, parasympathetic, yeah, yeah, and nervous system that. And then you wanted to create a piece of music that kind of also talked to that and what was your how, how did you go about doing that?
Sofie Søe:yeah, so um first of all, I I thought of a baby in a crib, um I wanted these like thank you.
Sofie Søe:These like bells, like this kind of almost lullaby ish tune, but it I still wanted it to be awake because it's for me a color that's awake. So I found this synthesizer that's kind of like bell-ish and I modified it a bit to make it even softer for the intro. And then the melody comes in and I make that a bit clearer because I wanted to catch our ears and also fall asleep no, not fall asleep. And also I thought of actually the baby's frequency, how they scream, like it's like high, mids, um, yes, it's actually.
Sofie Søe:This is a fun fact. Our ears are actually made so they have a little bump around where the baby screams. That we hear really clearly compared to the rest of the frequency spectrum. So it's around like 2 to 4 kilohertz. We have a little bump, so everything in that frequency range is going straight into the brain and we're like reacting Wow, okay, that's totally interesting. It's very, very interesting. That also means we hear a lot of sounds in this frequency, like birds singing, like there are plenty of sounds that we hear clearer than other sounds okay, I love that.
Sarah Gottlieb:I really I actually love like the contrast as well sometimes. Sometimes I think it kind of talks into what Alex as well talked about, that she actually doesn't like orange that much but she finds that she uses it in almost all her work. I like that you created a very calm piece of music and somehow, with a baby screaming, oh like not really, but like inspiration from it, yeah. So I hope you are just as curious as me to hear the sound of rosy peach. So I think we should ask the listeners to put the headphones on, turn up the volume, get comfortable, close your eyes, because here comes the sound of rosy peach.
Sofie Søe:Thank you. Thank you so much for listening.
Sarah Gottlieb:I truly appreciate it. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who might love it too, and if you know a friend who's just as obsessed with color as you are, send it their way. I think they'll love it. If you'd like to see more about Alex Prober's work, visit my website, sarahgodliebdk, under the podcast section. This episode was supported and sponsored by Flyker Montana Furniture and the Danish Arts Foundation. Thanks again for listening.
