The nine watercolours in hitoha, and the word each one carries

Most apps choose their colours on a screen. hitoha’s began on paper.

Each of the nine themes in the app is a watercolour painted by hand by the artist Zeynep Özdem Sözmen. The brush marks and the grain of the paper are still there. When you choose one, the journal borrows its colours: the tint of your writing, the inks of the small doodles on your calendar, even the app icon.

Each painting also carries a single word, a quiet idea of what it might bring to a day. Here they are.

Poppy: Courage

Red loops with teal. Poppy is for days that ask something of you: a first day, a hard conversation, a start you’ve been putting off. It’s one of the three paintings included free.

Harbor: Belonging

Blue waves with sea green. Harbor feels like coming home, the place a boat returns to. It’s the painting hitoha opens with, and a natural first choice if you’re not sure. It’s free.

Ink: Clarity

Black and white, in ink. Ink is for clear thinking, lists, plain sentences and days when you want the page to stay out of the way. It’s free as well.

Apricot: Tenderness

Soft orange, mint and pink. Apricot suits gentle days and kind words, to others or to yourself.

Marigold: Gratitude

Teal and marigold with rose. Marigold is a natural home for a gratitude journal, or for any evening when you want to write down what went right.

Lagoon: Calm

Teal loops over lemon and coral. Lagoon is cool and still, good for slowing down at the end of a busy day.

Dusk: Rest

Violet and amber, the colours of the hour before night. Dusk is for winding down and letting the day be finished.

Blossom: Hope

Pinks with blue and tangerine. Blossom is for beginnings, for spring, and for the days you’re looking forward to.

Kite: Freedom

Cobalt and red in a lime frame. Kite is for weekends, travel and days with room in them.

How to choose one

There’s no wrong answer, and you can change it whenever you like. A few ways to pick:

• By the word. Read the nine words and notice which one you’d like more of right now.
• By the season. You might keep Dusk for winter evenings and Blossom for spring.
• By the feeling of the page. Open a few and write a line in each. One will feel like yours.

Poppy, Harbor and Ink are included with hitoha. The other six come with hitoha Pro.

Why paintings at all?

A journal is something you return to every day, so it should be a place you want to be. A painted page feels different from a blank white screen. It’s softer, more personal, and a little like writing in a sketchbook. Over a month, the calendar fills with small marks in the painting’s inks, until it turns into a drawing only you could have made.

You can read more about the artist on her page, or see all nine paintings together on the home page.