Indigo to the fore!

• AkzoNobel on space, colours, trends, and the ‘Colour of the Year 2013’

By Cheranka Mendis

2012 is all about ‘possibilities’ and take-charge optimism. It is about appreciation, looking for new options and innovation. For AkzoNobel, all this is represented in one colour: red – a blushing, lively, juicy red.

Almost at the end of this calendar year, the largest colour manufacturer worldwide has now identified ‘indigo’ as the ‘Colour of the Year 2013’. With communities and individuals embracing the possibilities and moving forward, the colour for the New Year stands for ‘connections’.

In Sri Lanka to support her son’s cricket craze, AkzoNobel Decorative Paints Head of Colour and Communication Nicki Barton met up with Daily FT to share her passion for colour and to talk about connections and the interlinked trends for the upcoming year.

 Colour Futures

 The Colour of the Year and global trends identified by the company are recorded in the company’s famous Colour Futures publication. “Colour Futures is a publication that is proprietary to the Dulux brand,” Barton said. “We have a team of experts representing the fields of fashion, design, styling and even university professors who meet annually to assess the trends of the world.”

As the global leader of colour manufacturers, AkzoNobel takes it upon itself to follow the emerging economic and social trends to assess future colour movements.  The insights of the experts are translated into colour palettes and images, and captured in the annual edition of Colour Futures to inspire customers.

“The team meets every year to talk about the trends of the world – not just trends in colour, but lifestyle trends, how people are living, what’s influencing them and changing. From that we look at the trends – what is happening in colour, what the colour trends are going to be and then turn that into colour pallets.”

Barton said: “Looking at colours for 2013, we have five key trends and then an overall theme which connects the trends together. We also have a Colour of the Year, which we think will be the major colour for that year.”

 Theme for the year: Connections

 Modern life is all about connections. Trends are today more global with the likes of social media influencing the people over the world, connecting them together.

“For 2013, the overall theme is connections. So what links all the trends together is the theme of connections – connecting people, connecting communities, and connecting technologies.”

Barton noted that with the people being more interlinked thanks to technologies, colour trends too tend to be more global than regional.  However the use of colour tends to be more local with some colour gaining more popularity in certain countries and other colours becoming a hit in a different part of the world.

Colour of the year: Indigo

 The colour that reflects the increasing level of connectivity in the world is indigo. “It is quite a strong colour,” Barton said. “It is a blue colour with quite a strong hint of purple coming through. It is great for feature walls and goes well with lots of other colours.”

Indigo picked by AkzoNobel goes well with tiled floors, slates, and marbles and could be accessorized with glass, chromes and silver and similar type of colours.

 Key trends for 2013

 There are five themes that lead up to the overall theme of connectivity. Each theme represents a dimension of people that would increasingly become evident as the year unfolds. The trends are collective passion, switching off, art of understanding, home factory and visual solace.

1. Collective passion

This trend is about connecting people and bringing people together for a particular cause. “It is remarkable how people in Sri Lanka come together for a festival following which they disperse and go back to their day to day lives,” she said. “Similarly the trend of collective passion is about coming together and dispersing.

Five words to best describe the trend are transient, flocking, energy, spontaneous, and collective.

Collective passion is reflected by the trend of colours that will transition in to another, blending subtly and disappearing into each other. “There is a beautiful decorative effect where colour blends together,” Barton expressed, “This is particularly good when you want to different rooms in your house in different colours and you want to be able to connect them and link through. Here the colours flow in to each other.” With subtle layering, the colour palette swoops from one colour cloud to the next.

The palette for this is very clean and fresh. “We have some of the paler colours which is the sort of linking colours and use the lovely pastels which reflects the desire to bring people together, united for some cause

2. Switching off

The goal for the trend is to simply clear the mind and create space for new thoughts. Barton believes that many will buy into the trend as it reflects the fact that everybody is so connected and busy all the time that the desire to switch off from the world be it for an hour or a day is increasing. “To switch off completely and disconnect in order to recharge, think or rest is a rising need of the people.”

Five words to best describe the trend are peaceful, stillness, idle creativity, solitude and day dreaming.

“We see the use of very pale colours combined with the dark colours. The off-white shades, colours with just a hint of colour combined with very deep shades creating a contrast,” she noted.

Palette for this is a palette of shadow colours – grey-blue palette with the use of very strong colours- almost blacks and deep blues.

3. Art of understanding

In an integrated world, the thirst for people to understand the why and how of things – be it in creating their favourite dish or the science behind technology – is increasing.

Keeping to the need of understanding, the third trend is very much about order and structure – using colour to help demarcate things and to show where different zones are. “It is about taking a standard space (or room) and making it special with the use of colour to mark objects, create alcoves, etc. It is about showcasing things instead of hiding.”

Curiosity, clarification, communication, orderly and understanding is what the trend is about. Barton noted that in markets such as Sri Lanka where people are afraid to use colour, this is an easy way to get people to experiment.

“The palette for this is beautiful usable colours,” she observed. “There is a slightly retro feel to it but the colours are pretty.” It would work well in markets such as Sri Lanka as it combines neutral colours with stronger colours.

4. Home factory

Very local, and possibly best suited for Sri Lanka, this trend is about creating your own space, growing your own vegetables, etc. Playing on a similar tune to that of the third, this trend talks of people’s want to understand and then create something themselves.

AkzoNobel uses the words simplicity, self reliance, honesty, small scale manufacture and super local to describe the trend. “The more society advances the more we want to keep things simple. It is this antidote; with things getting more complicated people like to get back to basics and go for a simplistic approach.”

Colours in this palette are taken from nature, she asserted, “It is very organic.” Influenced by fruits and vegetables there are many greens and blues in the palette. The colour of the year indigo settles under this trend.

 5. Visual solace

Again very relevant to the Sri Lankan market, this is about finding solace in the art of nature. “The trend stands for people using the rejuvenating power of nature to recover after bad things happen,” she explained. “The world is currently at a difficult place. There is a lot of global economic uncertainty so people are not necessarily sure of how things are going to work out. We have found out that people are now taking solace in nature and in art.”

With the use of colours that are more traditional in a unique way to create a kind of soul revival and uplifting; the trend plays on joy, restoration, upliftment, soul reviving and wonder.

“The palette is made of soft colours – pinks and creams along with muted colours to create a kind of ‘heaven’ or ‘sanctuary’ to get away and restore spirits,” she said. “Some beauty has the power to move us deeply and speak to us on levels we cannot put into words. It is about creating these beautiful environments of solace.” The colours used are non-challenging, easy on the eye creating a peaceful visual effect.

 Using the trends for exteriors

Barton assured that the trends work for exteriors as well as interiors. “For example, the first trend (collective passion) is very much an exterior palette. These colours are about pulling people together. By using these colours in a community it unifies people and brings a sense of togetherness.” She noted that the palette is excellent for the likes of apartment block.

Home factory also works well in exterior, as it is about playing with nature. The colour of the year, indigo is a very good colour to use outside as well.  “The design elements that go in to visual solace also work well in an exterior condition.”

 Changing the norm

 Sri Lankans are hesitant to use colour. How do we change it? “I think it is very much about reassuring people that colours work. We have a role to play in helping people understand how and what colours go together.” Customers should be encouraged to use a bit of colour to highlight small features at home initially, which would give them confidence to do better.

“We see a very strong link between colour and emotion,” she expressed. “Once you start using colour it is amazing how it changes the way you feel in your room or home. I find white rooms very cold. You paint it a lovely yellow and people might start talking a little bit more, the mood improves – sunnier and happier. There is an intricate connection between how you feel and how your home is. Colour is a great way of expressing that emotion and starting to change the emotions.”

 Colours suitable for tropical environment

 Slightly cleaner colours are good for the local climate, she observed. “Such colours will reflect the light well.” The pale greens and pale yellows along with sea-related colours would work well, Barton said.

“Also, because of the richness of the culture here, colours like indigo which comes from natural dyes or pigments also work. There are a lot of natural woods here, so the wood type colours will also be good.”

 Colour and space

 Speaking of elements that matter when deciding colour for space, Barton acknowledged that the amount of natural light is very important. “If you were to increase the feeling of spaciousness in a house, you should actually paint it in pale blues rather than white.” Yellow has a longer wave length than white, which makes it reflect light more.

Colour can help hide features or bring out features depending on what a customer wants. “If you have an area you may want to hide, then you paint the walls you want to show in stronger colours and the area you want to hide in a lighter tone of the same colour. To highlight certain areas you paint it a contrasting colour. The art of understanding showcases that.”

There are a lot of incorrect perceptions about colour, Barton observed. “There is a notion that the use of white make things looks bigger or spacious. This is wrong.” The other misconception is that colours are scary. “Colours are actually not scary; it is easy to play around with colour, particularly if you are not too ambitious. The pay back you get of having colour in your lives is always better.”