Next up are Nature Themes. These are all
Lakeshore carpets. You’ll notice the two
on the bottom share a similar color space.
When you print carpets, there isn’t a high
minimum run on the carpets, but you
have to limit the palette to 10 colors. So
you’ll notice the bottom two use the
same colors and a very important aspect
of those colors is that they represent the
ITT carpets - Infants, Toddlers and Twos.
In early childhood education you have
two categories - ITT and ECE. ECE stands
for Early Childhood Education which is
ages 3+. ITT is birth to two years old. So
ITT carpets should have a brighter color
palette. The top carpet uses darker
greens and browns and has an overall
older palette and is even photographed
with older children than the bottom two
carpets. The themes tend to be more
conceptual to be used with activities with
older children. The concept of time
passing and a tree is more relevant to a
child who is old enough to understand
time, while the bottom two are cuter in
their artwork (the funny frog and lily
pads) versus the top carpet. Even the
little birds and owls would go better in a
younger classroom. Identifying the color
palette before you begin designing is
important.