Issue 231
Has the drive for trends come to a natural end?
Written by Laura Perryman for Mix Interiors, April 2024
I’ve worked in the CMF (Colour, Material, Finish) industry for over 15 years, choosing visual identities for a raft of mass-manufactured products and spaces based on mood, aesthetic qualities and user experience preferences. Colour and materiality are very much driving collaborations.
A lot of the work that comes through the studio currently, is picking new colours for clients and industries. You'd think this was all around the latest trends but it's not always the case. I often ponder if colour can ever be new? If we are pushing the same pigments around the table, what can we expect as the results? After a few years, I found myself increasingly being asked for responsible or less-impactful material and colour choices.
A lot of the work that comes through the studio currently, is picking new colours for clients and industries. You'd think this was all around the latest trends but it's not always the case. I often ponder if colour can ever be new? If we are pushing the same pigments around the table, what can we expect as the results? After a few years, I found myself increasingly being asked for responsible or less-impactful material and colour choices.
I saw patterns emerge from clients and projects that revealed long-reaching themes rather than quick trends. Colour choices, it seems, are not always following what everyone else is doing, but are evolving to have deeper, more authentic meaning and cover increasingly nuanced preferences. More recently I've seen companies want to offer a spectrum of choices rather than a total set of on-trend colours. Why? Well with the rise and fall of economic health, climate change and political global challenges, the mood is a little less stable. Which poses the question: is colour more difficult to predict? Instead of digital colours rising to the latest TikTok hashtag or algorithm, real physical colours are solidifying their standing in the real world.
Key chroma areas, such as blues, pinks, greens, yellows and warm neutrals are becoming fundamentals, coupled with a movement of ‘stay and improve’ within spaces and buildings. As creatives and consumers, we are learning to enjoy longer-lived chroma choices. To address waste and sustainability in all areas, including the built environment, we have to find ways to be more sympathetic, building colour schemes that can be altered or restyled without rejecting the old for the new. And as the life cycles of manufactured products and materials come under greater scrutiny, selecting colours with appropriate lifespans will be a critical part of the design process. At the same time, consumers are choosing products and services for their uniqueness and ethical credentials.
So, has the time come for trend-avoidant colours and palettes? Perhaps. My work has evolved to create colour collections that are based on purpose-driven concepts, circularity, colour psychology and meaning. Shifts in office patterns, such as remote working have a knock-on effect on consumer behaviours, which we are only just starting to see the implications of in workplace design. These shifts and their development give us much more insightful cues for future spaces, as they directly affect lifestyle patterns. Taking a different perspective is key and instead we’re asking: if the world feels unstable, what colours make us feel grounded?
Key chroma areas, such as blues, pinks, greens, yellows and warm neutrals are becoming fundamentals, coupled with a movement of ‘stay and improve’ within spaces and buildings. As creatives and consumers, we are learning to enjoy longer-lived chroma choices. To address waste and sustainability in all areas, including the built environment, we have to find ways to be more sympathetic, building colour schemes that can be altered or restyled without rejecting the old for the new. And as the life cycles of manufactured products and materials come under greater scrutiny, selecting colours with appropriate lifespans will be a critical part of the design process. At the same time, consumers are choosing products and services for their uniqueness and ethical credentials.
So, has the time come for trend-avoidant colours and palettes? Perhaps. My work has evolved to create colour collections that are based on purpose-driven concepts, circularity, colour psychology and meaning. Shifts in office patterns, such as remote working have a knock-on effect on consumer behaviours, which we are only just starting to see the implications of in workplace design. These shifts and their development give us much more insightful cues for future spaces, as they directly affect lifestyle patterns. Taking a different perspective is key and instead we’re asking: if the world feels unstable, what colours make us feel grounded?
"Colour choices, it seems, are not always following what everyone else is doing, but are evolving to have deeper, more authentic meaning and cover increasingly nuanced preferences."
