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"RE" Themes Highlight Pantone's Color Forecast for 2009
Chicago (March 17, 2008)—"As consumers consider more carefully what they purchase and the impact of their choices on the world, themes to look out for are the ‘Re’ buzzwords: recycle, reuse and repurpose, as well as relax, rewind, renew and refurbish," noted Lee Eiseman, of the Pantone Color Institute. With a distinguished position as Pantone’s executive director and speaking from experience in a career that has spanned decades, forecasting expert Eiseman highlighted the current and future color trends to a capacity crowd during her presentation, "Reinventing Color + Style: The Major Trends" at the 2008 International Home + Housewares Show.
"Color is all about reinvention. Changes in color are therefore good, as they keep the customer stimulated in whatever medium he uses for purchase and garners his attention. We do eight palettes of color so you can decide which suits your own business," explained Eiseman. In selecting upcoming color combinations, she explained the importance of observation of the world around her, with data collection as her ‘homework’ on consumer preferences.
Emphasizing that social trends influence buying habits, she said that the trend to recycle, reuse and repurpose what consumers own is not only American, but international. Her viewing of the most recent Maison & Objet trade fair in Paris showed off this consumer expectation via the popularity of furniture made from car wrecks and a table created from recycled auto parts; recycled Texaco signs made by an artist from Africa and fashioned into stools; and cabinetry made from reclaimed wood among other innovative "Re" solutions. Eiseman explained that this trend provides the green "feel good" factor, while using color well captures your consumer’s eye and motivates him to buy. She further explained that in terms of the current economy, big ticket items get hit first, so quality, small items are timely for the industry right now.
As a forecaster, Eiseman noted that consumer lifestyle studies are key. When asked how they would like to decorate, the American market responded with a not unexpected: casual, traditional, simple, classic and contemporary. What is new, according to Eiseman is that
"…The consumer understands that it is entirely possible to mix it up with color and style, classic and traditional, or as done monochromatically in one color across a number of styles."
Currently, customers look for inspiration in shelter magazines (67 percent), store displays (60 percent), decorating shows on TV (53 percent), friends, neighbors or relatives (43 percent), the internet (38 percent), by books (27 percent) and early adaptors (10 percent). These high store display figures are particularly important for retailers, especially when they exhibit a range of product color.
The media plays an important role in our perception of favorable color. Eiseman explained that anything that is up for an Academy Award, from fashion to actual footage, influences color preferences. Movies worth watching in this way include Ratatouille, which is important from a design perspective as well, as Director Tim Burton’s stage sets of rich food colors offset with neutral browns. Sweeney Todd mixes murky colors with explosions of bright red. Indiana Jones, a triple retro film, uses browns and tans with casual sets that will influence fashion style and merchandise.
Eiseman’s eight color palettes for 2009 address the major trends in the home including colors and styles that can innovatively regenerate sales:
Ø Wine Country: With its casual and understated mixes of neutrals with warm tones, Wine Country entices with an easy, casual way of life. The colors are re-imagined pastoral tones of taupe, olive and grapevine greens, lavender grays and soft blues with wine reds.
Ø Honesty: Described as "designer boutique meets flea market find," Honesty revisits shabby chic with the emphasis on chic. It uses a soft palette of unbleached whites, tender greens, clouded corals, toasty warm tans and cool gray punctuated by red rose for a very real color attempt at recycling treasures from what was destined to be trash.
Ø Discerning Tastes: Managing the modern with traditional, Discerning Taste preserves the styles, but with newly devised finishes, colors and textures. Classic crystal, antique white, caviar black, red mahogany, champagne beige, metallic silver and gold are the basics of this elegant group, while a warm sensuous orchid adds an exotic effect.
Ø Reveries: With a nostalgic look at dreamy deco as pictured in old films, Reveries offers a bit of glamour as well as whimsy. Many of the colors are historically accurate, as in the dusted mauves and misted rose, yet the palette is revamped with new combinations inspired by fashion forward colors: flowering lilac and fragrant lavender, iris blue, rosy mauve and vibrant purple, unexpectedly juxtaposed against rich russet brown.
Ø Wanderings: Inspired by exotic travel whether real of imagined, Wanderings retells the tale of the wonderful journey in dusky tones of rose, Dijon like yellows and deepened taupe mix with moth mineral and Mediterranean blues, and misted gray are dramatically embellished by rich gold and scarlet red. This palette offers a sophisticated appeal to an ethnic look.
Ø Solar Energy: Capturing the dynamic power inherent in the sun, Solar Energy offers variations of mandarin and flame orange, with radiating gold and green based yellows. Mulled purplish wine, fuchsia red and electric blue add an interested dimensions to the mix, while an ashy gray provide a calming neutral influence to this volatile mix.
Ø Breathe Easy: Though the blue-green palette is not really new, Breathe Easy speaks to consumers who yearn for respite and relaxation. While pure bright white and variations of blue permeate this palette, garden green and muted vegetal yellow-green and the introduction of blue purple adds a meditative mood.
Ø Animate: Literally defined as "a state of bringing somebody or something to life and activity" Animate is inspired by the Japanese art of Anime. Immensely popular with young people and artists, this art form as well as palette combines clashing colors in unique combinations. Ebullient reds, vibrant blues, mint and chartreuse are positioned next to light apricot quiet green and deepened berry as just some of the possibilities for these otherwise unlikely mixes.
Eiseman concluded that while fashion translates to the home, current culture plays a role. Overall, green continues to be a major force in the marketplace, because it has been attached to the green market.
"Green has been the symbolic color for the past few years and will stay that way," she said. "It reflects the usage of the moment. The mother color to green is blue, in homage to water, the most previous commodity we have. Blue is a favorite with consumers all over the world. New vibrant metallics and the unusual combinations inspired by Japanese design take awhile to wrap your head around, because it is not the way we were taught to look at color. Those color combinations that youth are so comfortable with an embrace are your current market, and if not, they are your future market." Addressing these trends not only reinvents, but reinvigorates the market.
The 2008 International Home + Housewares Show runs March 16-18 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. The largest marketplace of housewares and homegoods in the world features more than 2,000 exhibitors, including 400 new companies, and attracts 60,000 attendees, including more than 23,000 retail buyer from around the world. For more information about the Show, visit www.housewares.org.
