Bene Office Furniture

Colour trends and trendsetters

Colours express human needs

Modesty or luxury? Elitism instead of uniformity? Does one seek to stand out or blend with the crowd? How will preferences develop over the next few years? Understanding such phenomena helps to gauge future colour trends. In times of economic downturn people tend to prefer more established forms of expression; individuality is signalled – if at all – only by sparingly applied colour accents. Combining neutral colours with clear and bright tones reflects the need to reconcile technical progress with nature.


The colour prognosticators

Predicting colour trends has become a separate, worldwide and cross-sectoral field operating subliminally, hardly noticed by the consumer, who is manipulated all the more without being aware of it.
Just to name an example: For the "Color Marketing Group", the leading international association for colour design professionals, ca. 1,300 colour designers from various industries identify approximately 30 tones that will set global trends three years later. Specialised trade fairs introduce new colour trends and technologies, such as the Colorexpo in Seoul, Korea – the leading exhibition of its kind for the booming Asian market. This year the Colorexpo will be hosted for the fourth time. And for 750 euro the new colour trend manual by Pantone informs about colour trends in fashion, cosmetics, furniture and design for the 2007/2008 fall season.


Sources of inspiration

Everything is connected with everything else, which is why cosmetics and paint firms, fashion and furnishing designers, kitchen and jewellery manufacturers scour the globe for the latest lifestyle trends. They browse design magazines, attend fashion and art fairs, mingle in the club scenes of London and Barcelona and comb through small avant-garde boutiques in Berlin and Manhattan. The results are later compiled and analysed in a number of panels that also take into account political, economic, social and ecological developments. According to trend experts economic downtimes tend to be dominated by pastel colours, while economic boom shows a preference for bright shades.


If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, ….

Gauging future colour trends may rather evoke comparisons to alchemy than science, nonetheless – the impact of trend research is indisputable: Once global colour trends have been defined and published by various institutions, the new colours are gradually introduced to market. The new trends are first adopted by the cosmetics industry, followed by textile and paint producers and the fashion industry. Due to long production cycles and extended product life cycles the automotive industry is at the bottom of the league.
Yet another industry appeals – sometimes in a seasonal cycle – to our subconscious, to generate an increased demand for colour trends identified by the experts and trend analysts. Country-specific preferences are of course taken into consideration, whenever trends are put into practice.
Fashioners and designers adapt colours for products that will enter the market the following year. Car manufacturers advertise new models in trend colours, even when the retail market is still dominated by different hues. Advertising and marketing promote colours and products that are not yet available to increase demand. That’s when demand determines supply.


Interplay

Trends are a tug-of-war between supply and demand. They have however a life cycle, too. First, consumers become weary of existing products. Then, a small avant-garde that has been sporting new trends underground begins to rebel. Many trends never reach beyond their underground status, but some advance to popularity, shaping the zeitgeist. Eventually, the trend begins to wither, once it has become too mainstream. This is followed by oversaturation and the game starts all over again. This process seems almost predictable, if people weren’t so erratic…

Nicole Schemerl-Streben