It’s that time of year when magazines and blogs tell you the new colour trends for the year ahead.
A few months ago Pantone released the colour ‘Honeysuckle’ as the new colour for 2012. As of the last month the latest colour brightening up the fashion and design world was ‘Tangerine’.
But how do they know? Trend forecasting is done every year as a guide for manufacturers and designers to help plan for future events, colour ranges and fashion runways. These reports are mostly done 2-3 years in advance (and can take up to a year to prepare), so what you see on the shelves and in the magazines has been worked out years before. Nothing you see is by accident.
There are many boutique and individual companies that offer these reports as well as large corporations that generate a buzz within the design world.
Designers, like myself, go to countless seminars and shows to get an insight of what is happening in the world of design and manufacturing.
But forecasting can be taken as gospel or inspiration. Those who take it as gospel tend to be large manufacturers who produce en-mass to the general public. By manufacturing ‘sure-things’ they can sell in bulk and get it to you/us at a good price.
Buying in bulk doesn’t give you that individual ‘one-off’ but that is not what you are paying for. You are buying something you know has been researched and is going to go with all the other new items you will buy this year. This is all about buying in ‘safety by numbers’.
Not every designer listens to forecasting as they prefer to create and mould their own inspiration. This can, of course, be a hit or miss risk for an individual, but if they get it right, they are hailed as a true source of creativity and someone who is unique.
To see the full influence of forecasting you can’t go past the 70s and 80s. The instantly recognisable colours and styles of those decades show an era that embraced the safety of mass production. These days we are a little more aware of our own personal tastes and how we adapt the ‘colour of the year’ to our homes and our lives.
Personally, I love the injection of Tangerine and Honeysuckle but I make sure any colour injection matches the personality of the home owner. That way I can truly make that colour about them and not just a fashion statement.
If you don’t want to be defined by the times, take note of “trendy colours” and make sure you inject them because you love them, not just because they’re “in”.
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