Jody Turner: Design and Colour Trends
In her last article, trend and design consultant Jody Turner categorised global colour trends. In this article, she further explores design and colour trends and talks with up-and-coming designers about how they use colour in their work.
Culture is moving from homogeneous expressions to an era of overlapping influences, creating a “co-creation culture”. As trends move out of focus, consumers are not discarding them as new trends move in. Rather, they are keeping bits, discarding others and redefining them on their own terms. Consumer choices are influencing design and colour industries in brand new ways.
Artist: Fumi Watanabe for Starbucks mural project
Here is a quick list of both full colour and neutral colour design examples in the marketplace today.
Full Colours
Charging colours dominate the landscape from the bright global colours in the modern East Indian fashions and patternings of Alpana Bawa to the interior colour immersion of Tord Boontje’s floral works. Christo’s Curtains enlivened a wintered and greyed Central Park, while the botanical patternings of Orla Kiely’s fashions take us into summer. Strong colours are cutting through an overabundance of choice. Strong, full colour links us to emotion, wonder, serendipity and the physical needs of the senses. Colour is at an all time high as in the work of 1125, who literally takes art off the walls and into the products around us. We are swimming in colour.
Photos: Gate: Lisa De John; Shirt: Sveva Costa Sanseverino
Neutral Colours
Blacks, earth tans, transparencies and whites are balancing the colour rich experience. While colour infuses the runway, Prada plays with richly textured blacks and Marc Newson designs a limited edition cosmonaut sneaker — the Zvezdochka — with richly layered patterns of black. Intuitive futurist Li Edelkoort opens up the food category with black foods from squid ink, black radish, licorice spice, Irish pudding, coffee, truffle and aubergines to boudin noir.
Kartell and Philippe Stark’s transparent furniture provides visual relief by defining a chair literally clearly. Marcel Wanders puts forth a fanciful wonderment in his use of white interior egg-formed walls in the new Hotel on Rivington. The recently released Penck mobile by Makoto Saito entertains us with organic design and visceral names such as Metal, Milk and Bitter.
An earth-based, organic focus is getting airtime from hybrid cars to farmers markets, from American Apparel to Nike Considered. Nike Considered’s khaki and tan naturalism takes the youth generation away from either/or to a marriage of sustainability and materialism. The lo-fi, natural colour ranges connect to the earth and reflect its natural materials.
Innovative Departures
JetBlue’s colour films add inventive depth to their low-cost luxury services, entertaining the masses with creative visual therapy. Pantone encourages the playful exploration of colour and birth influences via colour astrology. Tony and Tina’s line of makeup sold at Sephora teaches colour energy theory. For more information, consult their book of the same title: “Color Energy.”
Chef Homaru Cantu links edible colour imagery, high-end cuisine and technology. Cantu prints culinary images from birthday cakes to sushi, infusing torn bits into the dish. Food critics have approved, calling Mr. Cantu the Salvador Dali of cuisine.
Visualising science concepts through art and colour informs MIT’s undergraduate Technology-Enabled Active Learning Project (TEAL). TEAL recasts physics learning as cutting-edge visualisations and simulations. The colour study to the left is an example of a magnetic field representation on exhibit at the MIT museum.
Image: George S. Zaidan
A Co-Creation Culture
Creativity and design rise to match human interests, needs, processes and passions. Consumers enjoy the satisfaction of crafting personalised worlds; home improvement shows and DIY shops tap into this collective consciousness. While much remains creatively prescribed around another person’s idea of lifestyle or creativity, a yearning to create what authentically moves us is emerging. Brand ideals are shifting from a primary focus on iconographic hierarchy to a sideways, organic relationship with consumers. We are ready to creatively interact around fulfillment, inspiration and meaning. What better conversation to have than one that includes the emotional balance of colour?
Photos: George Bartosi, Massive Change, Vancouver Art Gallery
