Friday, January 23, 2009

Design Intelligence for 2009

Color and design choices must always first serve the 'story' of an interior, exhibit or event. But they must also relate to the environment and the climate of the society that will ultimately accept or reject it. With that in mind Hilary Howes, CMG tracks color trend as a window into the social climate that determines the success of designs she consults on. As a Creative Director for Transformit attends exhibitions, design seminars and serves as a chair holder in the Color Marketing Group. The Color Marketing Group has hundreds of members that meet regularly to share design intelligence to make and confirm color forecasts years in advance.

Hilary says "For 2009 the biggest story is the economy (of course) but also a maturing of the sustainability movement.' What do those mean for color and design trends?

"Faced with an uncertain economy people look to the safety and certainty of Black and White. Shades of gray are also reassuring and we are seeing them maintain strict neutrality this year. Comforting, classic and honest the clean designs of black, white and grey often have an accent color to push this theme one way or another.' Hilary explains.

She continues 'The maturing environmental movement is looking past green to the yellows of sunshine and the blues of pure water as the most important colors in the new year. The sunny yellow that is popular this year is also a very cheery color to optimistically lift the spirits of people in a down economy. Likewise blues that will predominate this year are not somber navy blue but upbeat and energized bold blue and sky blue. So while the growing awareness that clean water and sky direct the choice of color the underlying optimism of people who have made a milestone change in their politics directs the brilliance and intensity of the color"

How did we get here and where are we going? "This is all a dramatic shift from the greens of every shade we saw in 2008 when the 'green' movement and the war is all people talked about. The optimism of the current blue-sky palette makes a good transition to the magical colors we will be seeing in 2010" Hilary says with a knowing wink.




2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thanks for the intelligence report. I find this information very useful and informative. I hope to pass this along to my customers for their use in future event, exhibitons and permanent i design installations.

Selwyn

Unknown said...

Thanks for the intelligence report. I find this information very infromative and plan to share these items with my clients and prospects for event and exhibition design.

Selwyn