BY
Gloria Gale
PHOTOGRAPHY
Courtesy of Benjamin Moore

Welcome to the color smorgasbord, featuring vibrant tints and delectable shades from mellow to fresh, savory to effervescent. Fittingly, you’re the honored guest. Your hosts are the color forecasters, alchemists of inspiration who are about to enhance, influence and enchant you with the 2008 color trends.

“The magic of color is a beginning, culminating in the visual expression of hue,” according to a statement by Benjamin Moore. In other words, color shapes the emotional character of just about everything.

Until the last couple of years, the fashion world was the starting line propelling color trends that eventually filtered down into the home furnishings industry. Now, the color gurus at Sherwin-Williams are telling us it’s not just the runway; it’s the hallway that’s opening the door, exclaiming, “There’s no place like home.” 

Benjamin Moore is doing its best to lay out the welcome mat with its theme, “Returning Home” as the heart of its new color forecast.

“The sense of well-being triggered by the familiarity of home is what evokes the notion of safety and feeling grounded,” says Doty Horn, Benjamin Moore director of color and design.

Doty’s counterpart at Sherwin-Williams, design marketing-manager Jackie Jordan, expands on this concept of personal expression. “We feel good or not so good about a color because there are so many influences affecting our aesthetics and how they sift down into our everyday lives,” she says.

Sherwin-Williams has identified eight areas for color inspiration:

-Cultural awareness, rising economics and conflict worldwide
-Nature, always the diva of color
-Technology, high- or low-tech innovation
-Travel, global destinations
-Pop culture, hip hop and beyond
-Demographics, people to people
-Fashion and the home furnishings industry
-Environment, eco-everything

Collectively, the elements in this creative stew yield trends for palatable palettes, something industries across the board rely on to ultimately deliver the goods that sell.
Silver still leads the pack of most popular U.S. car colors for the seventh year in a row. KitchenAid now has 25 vibrant colors for its small countertop appliance line, including pink, mango orange, green and red.

Open up a Dell Insperion laptop and pick one of eight clear shades with accessories to match — mouse in one hand, pink M & M’s in another. Motorola has vibrantly colored its Razr cell phone, splashy in purple, red and pink. Even Leatherman Tool Group is gleefully accenting its ‘Juice’ line in standout shades of purple, blue and red.

Why does it matter what color an object is? “Because color sells and the right color sells better,” according to internationally recognized Color Marketing Group’s slogan. This 45-year-old consortium with approximately 1,000 color experts reports on a broad range of color marketing information to design industries worldwide.

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, the main color-forecasting company used by the fashion industry, says, “Color is definitely an attention-getter. Brightness grabs the attention of the consumer.” 

It also can be up to 85 percent of the reason people decide to buy. An informed knowledge of color trends plays a large part in the greater body of color ‘intelligence,’ Leatrice writes in her book, Color Messages and Meanings (Hand Books Press):  “Spotting trends is much like detective work. It’s not the one big ‘aha’ that hits you, but rather a string of clues that leads to the ultimate realization.” 

Closer to home, interior designer Sandy Humo says he’s seen many changes in his business over the past 45 years. “Color trends shift annually with different combinations coming in and out of vogue.” 

Lately, Sandy is working with fashionable palettes featuring teal/cream/brown or tones of blue and burgundy. “The more the contemporary the project, the brighter the color,” he adds. 

That hasn’t been the case for Leslie Holt. As an interior designer, she enjoys using saturated hues that add another dimension to nearly any style of home. “If we use a rich color on a wall, there’s no reason not to apply it to furnishings too.” One of her featured projects uses tropical shades of royal purple, chartreuse green and tropical pink in a traditional setting.

Madden-McFarland designer Carla Rieke is always pleased when a client will break away from the safe color mode and reach for something with pizzazz. “Still, the Old World colors — the aged patinas of rich gold and deep brown and burnished yellow —continue to be popular with my clients.”

Jean Tinberg, owner of McFall Ltd., is excited that her clients are willing to use a rainbow of color in their projects. She recently painted a powder room in Benjamin Moore’s Purple Rain then glazed it with a silvery metallic finish.

Across the board, though there continue to be colors deeply grayed or heavenly pastel, the buzz for ’08 is anything but sedate. 

Benjamin Moore’s three hot hues are Peacock Feathers, Split Pea and Gypsy Pink. Stay tuned to see Neon yellow and Cobalt blue bolt to the surface. Soar to new heights with Sherwin-William’s Cayenne and Borscht followed by purple, the new pink.

All shades of green are taking another bow, along with gold once again getting the nod. Look for that old softy, ubiquitous gray, along with red and purple as sidekicks.
Finally, C.J. Volk, creator of Tucson-based Citron Paint, wants you to realize that color is about emotion. That’s why she’s cleverly chosen names like Steamy Romance, First Kiss, Puppy Fur and Big City Girl as part of her 90-color line-up. “These words evoke emotion that cajoles visualization,” she notes. C.J. is obviously on to something. Her recipe for color success: “Analyze don’t agonize” — your new mantra as you ponder the paint chip.