Tag Archives: colour trends

The evolution of colour in design from the 1950s to today


I am editor for an academic journal about colour – the Journal of the International Colour Association. We just published our 8th issue today which is a special issue containing some of the best papers from the VI conference of the Italian Colour Group. Readers of this blog will probably particularly enjoy the paper by Francesca Valan on The evolution of colour in design from the 1950s to today. Valan introduces the notion of chromatic cycles and observes that the higher the chroma the shorter the duration of the trend. Some interesting predictions are made about the popularity of certain colours in the near future. To see this and all the other papers from this issue click here.

color outlook

I was interested to come across Color Outlook today – http://coloroutlook.com/ – a website that offers advice on colour trends. They offer quarterly 60-minute long podcasts that contain advice and knowledge from a consortium of colour experts. I can’t comment on what is in the podcasts because unfortunately they are not free 🙂 However, the credentials of the experts seem impressive indeed; from interior designers, through architectural consultants and artists, to colour psychologists. Lori Sawaya is the name that I am most familiar with. I don’t know her well but she seems a friendly and genuine person.

Though the podcasts are not free, there is a free podcast on the history of colour forecasting and trends so I am going to see if I can get that and have a listen. I will let you know what I think.