Before I rub my crystal ball and look into the future of colors, let me predict another thing first: the end of color forecasting as we know it. There used to be people like trend forecasters and fashion directors and magazine editors who could tell you things like, in three years from now, all eight year olds will be wearing pink Hello Kitty back packs and using tangerine iMacs. I think that’s about to disappear with the cathode tube television and the answering machine.
It used to take a long time for such prognosticators to fly around to trade shows, collect tear-sheets, make mood boards, collate information and get it ready for publication six months later or at the end of the fourth quarter. The camera phones and the internet gave us instant dissemination of such material and trends are out, predicted and over before they’ve begun. But here’s an interesting coincidence.
Pantone released its 2010 color pick and it’s Turquoise — chosen as a color of deep healing and tropical paradise. I can never deduce how these things are selected, if it’s pink one year only because last year it was chartreuse, but this must be noted: Apartment Therapy readers recently voted the same basic thing “best of” in October's Room for Color contest. Have Apartment Therapy readers lead the leaders, or is there some je-ne-sais-quoi zeitgeist in the air?
I found this color at the Paris trade show Maison&Objet last January (along with Plum and Pumpkin Spice, ubiquitous all year) and have watched it trickle into store fronts across the land since then like a bubbling brook. Now I see Teal in Crate & Barrel window displays.
I personally find this color to be redolent of several things: Europe, especially Paris; Mid-Century Modern, somewhere between Butterfield-8 Blue and Brady Bunch Blue; and, yes, the next wave.
Look also this season for Jade, though I stop short of bringing it into my own home. I wonder what will happen to the cave colors of yore, if they’ll lighten slightly or hold firm; and if pattern will become even more exuberant. Only time will tell.
Do you have color predictions of your own for 2010?
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I hope Jade is big because I would really like a nice jade (like the gemstone color cause jade doesn't always mean the same thing to all people) fabric for a seating thing I'm designing and I haven't found anything I've liked yet.
I'm very constant in my colour preferences, and forecasts have no effect on what I love and choose - inevitably greys and taupes and offwhites (I know, some would say non-colours) with bits of pale blue, sage green (I call it dunegrass green, actually) and every now and then a wee flash of red. These are colours that make me happy - and have done for years - so whyever would I follow fashion?
I agree w/ the premise that color trends are on their way out.
People don't want their homes to look like everyone else's house, and Americans no longer have the money to change the throw pillows and rugs every 6-12 months to follow trends either.
IMO, the new "trends" for the next decade will be durability, sustainability, classic shapes and personal taste.
you "found" this color last january in paris?
that sounds a little ridiculous, no?
Fewer trends in a crowd of people with an eye for design, distinct tastes, and outspoken opinions? Well sure -- take the AT community: we like what we like, are inspired by certain things, can discern quality and functionality, and can hopefully edit out those things that are nice, but not necessarily for us.
Buuuut, so long as there are people who lack taste, struggle to discern their own style, try to keep up with the Joneses, or just plain have a don't-know-don't-care attitude, we will have trends of all kinds. Because they rely on them.
There are two ends of this lack-of-imagination spectrum: some people need or want to be told what is trendy in an attempt to stay hip, while others simply want to make their decision-making a less painful process.
For them, identifying a trend and going for it is the most viable solution. So long as they go for the trends -- and they will -- the trends will be forecasted and continue to exist.
As someone who makes a living researching, trending and forecasting color, I can say with confidence that companies need us on their team to pull together massive amounts of data to determine comprehensive seasonal palettes. It's not so simple as picking colors out of thin air. You might want to do more research into exactly what a color designer does before you predict the end of my profession.
I thought I saw a lot of turquoise last year. There will always be color trends but maybe fewer will follow them. I predict "white".... seriously, late '09 a lot of designers were using bold dark wood in a primarily white room.
I never understand how they pick the colors either. It seems like they maybe just close their eyes and point to a swatch, then justify it by saying something like, "Consumers are looking for a bright color like Mimosa to offset the gloomy economy."
"...companies need us on their team to pull together massive amounts of data to determine comprehensive seasonal palettes."
And that's exactly the problem with trends and we see it here on AT all the time:
Folks see something and decide in a few months that they want it, but after 15 weeks on the shelf it's discontinued and the customer is frustrated and there's no purchase made - this after the retailer had to discount the heck out of the old stuff to get it off the shelves before the new season/trend came along.
The trend is yellow and grey and the client wants red and blue - again, client frustration and no sale.
Then there's the few folks who bought something at the beginning of the trend and see in the retailer's weekly catalog or e-mail a few months later that it's 1/2 price - How does that relate to making the consumer feel like they were treated honestly by the retailer and received a good value?
If home retailers are going thru bad times they only have themselves to blame by going through rapid seasonal merchandise changes, discontinuing desirable styles and items for the sake of chasing trends and training the consumer to wait for the inevitable sales before making purchases.
very smart cookie there bepsf! i'm totally with you.
I believe everyone has an innate color palette that makes them feel good. Find it, obey it! It will last, for you.
I'm interested in the color trends...to know what to avoid.
An era's "it" color ends up looking dated very quickly.
Avocado green, anyone?
Burnt orange already has distasteful memories for me from the last few years. Cars, clothes, and a couple of carpets and walls in offices.
But I still worship teal :)
Teal is one of those enduring colors. Maybe because I came of age in the 80s? I remember it as the teal decade.
Turquoise is funny. I start out going turquoise, yes, chic - then 6 mos later, I'm all like, what's so great about 50s linoleum and tourist jewelry. I dunno. No staying power.
Trends forecasts my not be important to you but they are a fact. Let's not fool ourselves. The folk who have to plan manufacturing runs 2 years before the product hits the shelf needs those forecasts. Those forecasts will dictate what you find on store shelves, in photo shoots, and in fashion houses.
Most AT readers are currently into that dumpster-dived, thrift store look. Let's not forget that look itself was forecasted about 6 or 7 years ago as Boho Chic, a return to 70's counterculture. I'm old enough to remember when Chocolate Brown was forecast to become "the new black." It is now ubiquitous and found everywhere. And do you think it coincidence that stores started manufacturing all those MCM-esque sofas?
It might be nice to think that all of your design choices are innately yours from within the depths of your soul. But only the most self-absorbed narcissist can avoid being influenced by the world around him or her. It's just how the creative process works. And forecasting creates what you see in the world around you. Some color forecasts will be a flash in the pan; here today and gone tomorrow. Others, like "the little black dress," will hang on for decades.
The thing about trends in design, color, television, music, etc, is that while YOU may disdain them today, and you may disdain them tomorrow, they are an important part of our culture. quitmaster is right - these things find their way into the shelves at target, and sooner or later, we will probably all find something we like that is a take-away from this trend - maybe it will be a muted turquoise, maybe it will be a scarf and not your bedroom wall, maybe you'll go to a bar and they'll have a turquoise colored martini, but it will be there, it will be ubiquitous, and you might not even realize it. But I do (and you're here, so maybe you will too). These things are a reflection of our culture. They will be seen as such. Somehow, this color speaks to people in ways that it wouldn't have in the 90s. Can you imagine ANYBODY from the 90s in turquoise? No. That was a very primary color (from before the color wheel revamp) decade. This is not.
There is something about a cultural moment, and I find it very interesting and awesome that AT readers agree with pantone. I think that says a lot. There are a LOT of colors out there - laymen (some of us here, anyway) and professionals (hello pantone!) came up with the same exact idea for once?! That, to me, is pretty significant.
Speaking of trends - guess what I received in the mailbox last nite?
A WestElm catalog with a Mimosa Yellow dining chair on the cover...
...Yellow accessories, Yellow bedding, Yellow rugs - even Yellow graphics!
http://www.westelm.com/
...and here we thought Turquoise was the color of the moment.
Jick...we do you have to be so nasty and pick a fight? I think a lot of people would use that expression with out any intention of ownership...hence the expression when we all come across something we love "what a great find". This is a design blog..play nice
ok and that was supposed to say why do you...in case you wanted to pick at my spelling and grammar as well
There seems to be an awful lot of animosity here! Unless you're able to afford custom furniture and furnishings, it's helpful for us regular folks to be able to purchase things in colors that work together. If you are able to order custom everything, you don't have to worry if you'll be able to find things that work with what you have, but if you're a regular Joe or Jane, that's not practical.