I am constantly gathering visual inputs as I move about my day and my brain calculates my encounters into color palettes. This is how I see things. I started a #100dayproject on Instagram - sharing images that I’ve captured and their corresponding color palettes. Here are some of the outtakes.
Personalities of color, materials and finishes
Color, materials and finishes (CMF) bring a product to life by conveying a mood and overall vibe, communicating whether a product is energetic or calm, optimistic or safe. While in development a product is often personified and discussed in terms of “what does it want to be?” CMF decisions must speak to the goals of the product and considerations like price point, audience and product placement are critical. Color is rooted in psychology, in our personal and collective experiences and is a significant part of the audience relationship with a product.
CMF grouping of cozy textured neutrals with a touch of vibrancy.
Current materials in light, clean, warm neutrals, cool lilacs, livened with a few zippy yellows.
Rounding out this insanity of last year, 2021 trends point toward divergent paths. We crave colors that are upbeat and happy. However, these touches of vibrancy require a steady foundation of warm, cozy neutrals that communicate security and stability. Key color families for 2021 are active and bright as well as subdued and calming. Both categories are important. Both are valid and set out to balance each other, and maybe us in the process.
Often, I explore various color and material combinations and sometimes just with paint chips. This is an equal opportunity palette, balanced with saturated brights and warm neutrals.
These informal paint chip palettes are a quick and easy way to work through an idea out on an index card. Here too, the boldness of orange countered with mid-tone brown and soft blue.
Through observation of global movements and design trends I am focused on building balanced CMF strategies to help my clients further their voice in the ever complex realm of surface materials.
2 0 2 1 COLORS OF THE YEAR focus on complex muted warm tones.
2021 COLORS OF THE YEAR
FORECASTING COLOR OF THE YEAR: everybody’s doing it!
Color producers apply significant resources to researching and positioning color trend forecasting predictions. Campaigns for color (or color palettes) of the year are highly anticipated. Pantone recognized the power of promoting color forecasting early on with many others jumping into the game. Color of the year (COTY) campaigns demonstrate design leadership, helping customers visualize the color(s) applied to products or settings and set the tone for why their brands should remain in the forefront of consumer minds.
Color preferences are not exactly subjective. Say what?! Color forecasting does not happen in a vacuum! It’s actually a pretty involved process that includes researching global and local movements in the economy, politics, art, fashion, entertainment, science, technology, etc. Color has always carried inherent meanings tied to the human psyche and color trend predictions must be culturally relevant to truly resonate with consumers.
With so many COTY campaigns it can be overwhelming to interpret what this means for a brand or individual product line. It may not be appropriate to apply a COTY literally or directly on a product or even a component of a product. But it is critical to understand how COTY influences prevailing attitudes so that informed color decisions can be made to keep products fresh and relevant.
Going into 2021 preferred colors are complex and muted. These colors will have warm undertones of yellow, replacing cool blue-based grays. Trending colors could even be considered earthy. Key color families include: yellows, greens, terra cotta & mushroom.
Colors move warmer and focus around terra cotta and other earthy hues.
Palette developed in collaboration with master batch manufacturer, Uniform Color.
Clay and yellow tones are lively yet inviting.
Project for contract furniture company, Falcon Products’ 2020 materials updates
Move over gray. Taupe is taking over. A huge shift away from cool gray towards a warmer, lighter neutral is big news. Think wet clay or mushroom. This color change will be seen in all industries and markets. Here it is demonstrated on several materials.
Labor of Love: developing a swatch card
It’s Labor Day and I’m celebrating swatch card layouts, a key service I provide clients. One may wonder if swatch cards are even relevant in our increasingly virtual world. Within the wonderful world of commercial interiors it is still critical to use physical samples to make specifying decisions regarding textiles and finishes. Color, texture and finish bring a product to life and these attributes can only be experienced through a physical sample.
Recently, a couple of programs I worked on over the winter have officially launched with marketing campaigns and swatch cards. My involvement in such projects varies, but in the case with the images below, collaboration with office furniture client, AIS, included programing and card layouts.
Newly launched swatch cards for AIS grade A & B standard upholstery program.
Along with memos (roughly 8” x 8” fabric samples), swatch cards are a tool manufacturers use to showcase a standard surface materials statement of line that is readily available applied to their furniture. With so much migrating to the digital realm the last several years (which now has escalated due to recent pandemic), physical samples remain an important specification tool. In addition to communicating color accuracy, scale and true texture, a manufacturers’ swatch card shows, at a glance, the breadth of tried and true options that have passed rigorous application testing and in many cases are stocked to support quick ship orders. A well executed offering and swatch card program supports market expectations and speaks to the manufacturers’ brand direction. A well executed swatch card program will save billable hours by easing specifying decisions, making designers more efficient.
Work in progress. Mock up of a swatch card layout. Laying out a swatch card is a puzzle.
Additions must bring a program together to make it whole and cohesive, while driving the entire portfolio forward.
The launch of a new swatch card represents a finished product of several months of development. At the heart of this development are market expectations to stay current and keep evolving. Bringing in new materials or colors are not decisions to be taken lightly and these decisions are not made in a vacuum. There are numerous considerations at various points in a project: sifting through sales history of an existing program to understand volume drivers and duds. Decisions regarding what to keep and delete in an old program can have monumental impact on customer standards and inventory position.
Ultimately, the swatch card is a go to tool box for designers to use in the specification of a manufacturers’ product.
New proposed colors (in paper form) alongside existing plastic colors for a stacking chair line.
The importance of keeping it fresh.
Evaluating partial laminate offering based on sales data and market need.
A refreshed surface materials offering breaths new life into a standard program, allowing the best elements to be brought forward, lesser elements to be discontinued, and highlighting new introductions.
With a bit more time on my hands this last few months, I’ve been thinking a lot about the core of what I do. It’s not just about ideating color palettes. One of my primary roles involves helping customers navigate additions and deletions to their existing surface materials programs. This can be for a singular product-type, like glass or thermo plastic, or it can be an entire portfolio of various materials with lots of complex moving parts.
It is critical to discontinue sku’s throughout a products’ life cycle. Eliminating older colors reduces complexity and saves money over the long run. This is especially important during a downturn as it lessens the burden on inventory of stocked goods as well as costly marketing materials. A surface materials refresh offers designers new tools while clarifying a portfolio and brand. Updating a surface materials program provides cohesion, generates market interest and gives dealers and reps reasons to connect with customers.
Considerations for sku reductions or deletions include evaluating aesthetics, sales volume, potential operational issues, and redundancy. Making room for new colors and materials must also be considered when looking at new product introductions.
Strategy for additions requires a keen understanding of market forces balanced with customer branding aspirations and of course budgetary constraints.
Refreshing a standard surface materials program is a low cost way to make a high impact in the market.
Augmenting an existing tile line with new colors to fill in voids.
Evaluating existing and possible new finishes across materials to ensure harmony.
Injecting a couple of new colors adds depth to a line while continuing with high sellers.
Harmonizing materials - making mood boards
A critical part of putting together CMF standards programs involves ensuring all new and existing materials and color ways work together cohesively. My process involves curating mini collections that combine color, materials, finishes and textures. Outcomes vary depending on the materials involved, but as groupings take shape personalities begin to develop. These groupings are often referred to as mood boards.
An individual sku on a mood board may not make sense as a stand alone item. Context emerges when multiple items are grouped together. Color is a primary vehicle for setting a mood, but layering texture and finish also play a key role in constructing a mood board.
After showing several mood boards to demonstrate how a refreshed standards program can work together a client replied: “I get it…it makes me feel good”.
Recent preparations for launch collateral.
Groupings created for sales meeting to launch a universal palette concept for GMI.
More for GMI. Same materials, vastly different colors convey different vibe.
Playing around with color combos.
A shift in metal finishes is around the corner
I admit I’m a fan of copper and brass tones: rose gold, bronze and the like. It’s been exciting to have these back in our design vocabulary for the last several years. And while aluminum and silver tones never really went away, rose gold has already faded while brass is starting to wain in favor of brighter, cleaner aluminum both high gloss, matte and brushed.
Products pictured: powder coats from Tiger Drylac, tile from Soli Stone, aluminum laminate from Formica
New work: color palette development for Uniform Color Company
Over many years I’ve worked with Uniform Color Company to develop plastic colors on behalf of various clients. UCC takes color matching and product development very seriously and they are a pleasure to work with. Recently, they asked me to help them establish a color design point of view of their own. 9 colors comprise this palette for UCC’s 2020 collection.
Uniform Color Company will share these with their wide range of customers.
Ongoing work: Ghent
I’m so lucky to have such amazing collaborative relationships with clients. I’ve been working with Ghent for many years. They’re known for their communication tools. Several years ago they launched a new glass board with select color options. Building on the success of the initial offering, we have been working on some new additions to their back painted glass line.
New mixed with existing colors on Ghent’s back painted glass boards.
Adding new colors to an existing line is the most typical way in which I work with clients. It is unusual to start a color line from scratch as most lines are already well established. The primary goal of a color refresh is to breath new life (ie. increased revenue) into an existing product line without launching an entirely new product. Here are old and new colors shown together with new coordinating tack board fabrics and laminates for Ghent’s offering.
BOX SEE collection, fall 2019
It’s my pleasure to deliver the first collection of BOX SEE!
BOX SEE is a great tool for manufacturers and product design teams. It’s important to develop products with market awareness but unless you are an interior designer, it is difficult and time consuming to research and procure samples. BOX SEE is a window into the latest and greatest in materials from commercial interior design. The samples can be used for internal inspiration or justification for project direction. Shown to customers BOX SEE demonstrates a level of understanding in the complex commercial interiors market.
The fall 2019 BOX SEE collection touches on auditory distraction in the workplace and includes a few products that address noise.
Fall 2019 BOX SEE provides insight into color shifts away from stark white and gray to less sterile warmer tones.
The fall 2019 BOX SEE was developed around a color theme using Sherwin-Williams color chips. All collections of BOX SEE include a hand made color card like the one shown here.
Recently introduced work: OMT Veyhl powder coat color palettes
My client, OMT Veyhl manufactures mechanisms for commercial furniture. They also have a state of the art powder coat line. With this line they can paint any color imaginable as well as have a huge offering of standard color options. Many times limitless options are overwhelming. Therefore, we set out to create a small grouping of color palettes to highlight OMT’s powder coat line that aims to spark a few ideas.
A few of the powder coat palettes for OMT
Recently introduced work: Camira Fabrics color combos
Camira Fabrics: “Curated Colors. Selected swatches in sustainable textiles.”
As a consultant, I have the pleasure of working with many wonderful clients. My love for textiles is about as deep as my passion for sustainability. In celebration of Earth Day 2019, Camira Fabrics launched a promotion of products woven with renewable fibers. Best known for their huge array of felt colors in patterns Blazer and Synergy, they also have many other textiles in their line. They are serious about sustainability and wanted to showcase how their entire offering of renewable fiber textiles can work together. Our collaboration yielded many lovely color combinations with existing patterns made from flax, hemp, nettles, silk and wool.
Initial color grouping concepts.
Swatch card of Camira’s “Curated Colors”.
Camira Fabrics https://www.camirafabrics.com/
Recently launched work: Flying Pig Coatings
Flying Pig Coatings color palette.
It’s rare to create a color palette from scratch. In some cases the sky is the limit. I prefer having some sort of parameters, whether self imposed or present due to technical attributes of some sort. The Flying Pig paint palette is one such project that was dictated by the materials. Flying Pig Coatings is a new paint technology made from acrylic-cement using only iron oxide pigments to impart color. If you are up on your art history you will know that iron oxide pigments do not include blue. This was a fun challenge. How do you achieve green? Can you have a standard palette without a blue? How blue does it have to be to be considered blue?
Color development for Flying Pig Coatings using the black iron oxide pigment to achieve blue tones.
More color development for Flying Pig using the red pigments to explore beautiful hues.
The initial palette launched with some really well executed marketing materials.
Flying Pig Coatings. https://flyingpigcoatings.com/our-product/pigment-palette/
Tactile nature of my studio
Ever since I was a child, I found myself with a basement studio space. For me, it started with altering and styling vintage dress up clothes in the furnace room. Naturally, this lead to wearing my creations to high school in the 80’s. (Shout out to all you fellow new wave Gen Xers out there!) In short, i’ve always had a thing for color, pattern and texture.
Today, my studio is still in the basement. But, now I get to look outside at the birds and an occasional fox or coyote in our woods. I’m fortunate to have 500 sq. ft of space to layout ideas, projects and to work on BOXSEE. My materials library is extensive. This job is pretty space intensive! I’ll never latch onto storing everything electronically. I’m way too into tactile experiences. Back to color, pattern and texture.
BOXSEE launching! →
There’s a lot going on in my studio this spring and plenty to be excited about. I’ve been developing a new concept called BOXSEE. It’s a collection of up and coming surface materials from the built environment positioned for manufacturers, product development and marketing teams who may have access to global and cultural trends but may not have visibility to surface materials that reside in vast libraries of the architecture and design realm.
As a seasoned color, materials and finish (CMF) designer, I am fortunate to have long standing relationships with many wonderful vendors. I am privy, not only to their latest and greatest, but I learn about technical aspects of how something is developed, as well as the market forces that inspire new products and solutions. A significant part of my career is devoted to trend reporting and I have seen first hand how the A & D market has become a trend driver, reaching far beyond the interiors realm.
While BOXSEE is pulled from the built environment, it is initially taking off in other markets interested in gaining tangible access to new and innovative developments in markets different from their own. Customers are using BOXSEE to influence or justify their own design direction and to demonstrate a broader understanding of the A & D market to their internal teams as well as customers.