I don’t know if you all know this, but I am a certified HGTV junkie! I can watch it all day every day from designs, to landscaping, buying and selling, to remodels. So when I heard my favorite HGTV star, David Bromstad, was going to be featured this year at Epcot’s International Flower & Garden Festival, I knew I’d be there. I have been coming to this spring special event for almost fifteen years, but have never been to any of the speaker series since the recent collaboration with HGTV over the past few years.
David Bromstad, HGTV’s first Design Star, and host of his own show Color Splash, has ties to Disney and Florida. He is a former Cast Member who attended Sarasota’s Ringling College of Art and Design (just minutes from where I live). I love the bright, bold colors David uses in everything he does and especially his one of a kind paintings that he often contributes to his redesigns. I was so excited to learn this presentation was entitled the Power of Color since I love bright colors in my design and clothing.
I met my friends Carol, Danny and Jodi at Epcot and after a quick ride on Test Track we ventured over to the Wonders of Life pavilion early to get our seats. I was so glad we got there almost 45 minutes early as the seats were almost full at that time! This only goes to show how popular David Bromstad is. His personality on his shows is as big and bold as the colors he loves to use! This showed in his fantastic presentation about color.
The Power of Color presentation featured about ten colors or so and discussed common representations of the color. For instance blue is often associated with serenity and peacefulness, but David also brought up the negative of each color, like blue can represent depression. In addition, he went over some of the holistic properties of each color and the characteristics of those who typically like each color. After each color was described, he would show slides of the color used in three very different ways to bring out hues and shades to represent different themes.
I absolutely loved the presentation and David Bromstad’s sense of humor was so personable. He was so down to earth, even shouting out to his friends and parents who were in the audience, making it feel like he had invited us in to his living room for a fun chat. Even my friends who didn’t know who David Bromstad was before Sunday and who aren’t fans of HGTV seemed to really enjoy the presentation. It was very accessible to everyone and I think most people walked out thinking of all the new possibilities for design or even for dressing themselves in the morning. My friends even decided that they will now not be painting the nursery yellow for their yet to be born baby because it is the hardest color for the eyes to focus on (gray is the easiest subsequently).
David Bromstad put on a great show and it was a great combination of education and entertainment. After the show ended, he even took a good amount of time to meet and greet with his fans. He didn’t rush anyone along and greeted everyone with a hug and a sincere thank you for coming. Guests asked design questions, gave him gifts and just chatted with him. It was nice to see someone down to earth matching the personality they put out on tv. I have to give a shout out and huge thank you to David Bromstad’s social media manager Augie for making a meet and greet happen for me even though I missed the line cut off. Coincidentally, I ran in to the guys later that night at our resort in the elevator.
If you enjoy design and decoration as much as I do, or even if you are new to the game, I strongly suggest checking out David’s shows Color Splash and HGTV Design Star, which returns June 9th. You are almost guaranteed to learn some new design techniques and you will be entertained each episode for sure. Also, when next year’s International Flower and Garden Festival rolls around, make sure you check out the presentations by some of the best HGTV personalities. Check out David’s blog post about his time at Disney World here.
