Blog Post: Love the Colour of Life

Darius Monsef IV, founder of the creative color design resource colourlovers.com, has lived and worked all over the world; he is 25 years old. Feeling restless with the peaks and valleys of the freelance design world, Darius decided his life needed to change. After the tsunami struck Thailand in December of 2004, Darius attempted to volunteer in the tsunami disaster area. As an unskilled worker, he was not allowed a position. Not a man to be told what he can and cannot do, Darius bought an open-ended ticket to Thailand, and started the non-profit Hands on Disaster Response, an organization that places unskilled volunteers in disaster areas. This organization has since provided relief in Biloxi, Mississippi, after hurricane Katrina, and in the Philippines. All in all, Darius spent 11 months, out of two years, working in disaster areas.

A compassionate man, Darius speaks of the fragility of life, and how experiencing that fragility hands-on, has inspired him to follow his heart. "Why live for Friday, Saturday and Sunday? Find something that makes you love every day."

Colourlovers, Darius' current main focus, has nearly 20,000 members and 500,000 page hits a month. Even away from the non-profit world, Darius is rabidly building a community, to someday take "design trends out of the boardroom," and put them in the hand of the people. When asked what he would tell his 22 year-old self, Darius says, "Regret nothing. If I hadn't made every mistake and weathered the lows, I wouldn't be where I am today."