About Color Trends
Introducing you to two trends for 2023: Coral red, better suited for a lipstick than for a living room. The trendy wallpaper depicts palm trees. But what emotions are evoked by plasticized palm trees on living room walls? Left: Shutterstock. Right: tapetender70er.de
Color trends are constantly evolving, claim the trend forecasters. Are they evolving, or are they simply trivializing the topic by embedding color in the domain of passing styles and fashions? This article discusses overarching criteria for color selection that bypass the fleeting nature of trending and fashions.
Fortunately, there are logical reasons for color selection that align with the human desire to make sense of visual input and for beauty. The articles I post in this color blog and the lessons in my Masterclass "Light Color Architecture" clarify these. In them, I expressly refrain from discussing color trends because the trend reports regularly introduced by institutes such as the CMS (Color Marketing Group), the Pantone Institute, the AIC (International Colour Association), color manufacturers and prominent specialists degrade color to a fashion accessory.
Color of the year 2024. Really? Photo Shutterstock.
Why should the colors appropriate to a visually healthy environment in one autumn be passé in the next? That coral red is never the best choice for a living room wall, and Peach fuzz is a good name for a cocktail. But it will look like a big band-aid when applied to a wall unless color selection is based on other criteria.
Why should imitations of nature ever be a good choice? The wallpaper with the fake palms is a double illusion: the wall does not look like a wall and the depiction of nature does not look like nature. Such trends may please us for a moment, or not at all. They contradict our innate longing for what is sustainable and real.
It is time to redesign our thinking about color! Color is not a passing fad or fancy. It not an option we may choose to avoid or to add to our world of designs and objects. It is the very real way we perceive the world of objects.
My Masterclass lessons teach you how to rethink the role of color in architecture. A rewarding experience, I promise! Photo by Lukas Lienhard
If you base your color decisions on the sensory logic behind human vision, you will inevitably avoid "trending colors" and fashions that add an expiration date to your design work. Opt for timeless classics – natural colors made with beautiful pigments that have been around forever, like oak and bricks, or limestone and steel. Your customers will be delighted because they will never tire of them. They will enjoy the play of light on their natural surfaces and every time they look at them, they will think of the talented designer.
These decisions are so important for the impact of architecture that I offer numerous lessons that address these topics. Short lessons explain the connections between light, color, and architecture – a topic as fascinating as it is misunderstood. An in-depth examination of the relationships between the three players is worthwhile.
You will discover much more satisfactory reasons for choosing colors than following trends and passing fashions.
Katrin Trautwein
