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….as well as quotable quotes from our colorful leader and color expert, Leatrice (Lee) Eiseman. Lee has written seven books on color. She is the Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, the Director of the Eiseman Center for Color Information and Training and a color/design consultant to many industries. Fortune Magazine has named her as one of the 10 top decision makers for her work in color and she is widely quoted in the media. Enjoy!!
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Color Messages & Meanings:
A Pantone Color Resource
 
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December 31, 2009
Design Guide The Source for Fine Home Furnishings, Products
and Services
Dallas-Fort Worth 16th Edition
Color Trends
As Director of the Eiseman Center for Color Information and Training, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, color forecaster and consultant, a published
author and self-proclaimed color addict, Leatrice Eiseman is easily identified as America's leading color expert. Each year she scours the globe-from market to market-looking for refreshing inspiration in every corner of the earth, before translating her thoughts into the next year's much-anticipated Color and Design Trends forecast.
High fashion reigns supreme in setting the pace for color, pattern and design trends, "but look around you," says Eiseman, "color inspiration is everywhere." The entertainment industry, food, graphics, packaging, technology and worldly cultures-not to mention our own personal moods, ambitions, and needs-are a few of the social influences that shape the way we see and apply color in our everyday lives, she explains. "In this economy, people tend to 'burrow' as an at-home diversion," she states, which creates a society that is less prone to want to throw away or start over from scratch when it comes to creating a comfortable and stylish home atmosphere. However, "People are always looking to freshen and feather their nest," which is precisely what Eiseman aspires to provoke in the lives of interior designers, decorators and homeowners...
 
Unusual color combinations create an unexpected look of sophistication" traditional color hues are rapidly becoming a concept of the past." Another suggestion-"add some whimsy,"-she recommends. "Show stopping colors grab your attention and move you to stop and smile."
  
"...other pieces of advice include mixing bold vibrant shades with darker hues for a seamless juxtaposition, or play up the neutral toned elements in your home by accenting them with pops of dynamic and unpredictable colors."
  
Looking towards the future of color and design, Eiseman gravitates towards aesthetic ideas that not only impact us now, but will unquestionably have an even greater impact on us down the road.
People surround themselves with the colors that suit their lifestyle and their moods," says Eiseman. Whether it's bold, bright, risk-taking hues, or a soft, subdued natural palette that brings you home, coloring your world is about evoking an emotion and capturing the soul. Armed and ready with inspiration from the color queen herself, it's time to let your true colors shine through.
December 28, 2009
The Academy Report
Preserving Motion Picture History
Volume 22 • 3rd/4th Quarter 2009
As some of you may already know (or not) my husband, Herb, is a voting member of of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition to receiving about 60 movies to review every year and ultimately to vote on, he receives the quarterly report that very often contains interesting stories about the film industry.
Naturally, my attention is always drawn to articles that concern the use of color in film and/or film advertising. I was especially interested in a story about vintage posters as it dealt with the preservation of the colors in that unique art form.
I learned a new word when I read an article in the report about that subject and that word is "in-painting". It literally is the process of reconstructing lost or deteriorated parts of images. This task would be carried out by a skilled image restoration artist. In the digital world, in-painting (also known as image interpolation) refers to the application of sophisticated algorithms to recover lost or corrupted parts of the image data that are seen as small defects.
RESTORATION VERSUS CONSERVATION, THAT IS THE QUESTION.
The article dealt with the restoration of beautiful poster for a film called "Cavalcade" written by Noel Coward. It had been acquired to grace the second floor lobby of the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Hollywood. The poster was delivered in good condition with the exception of some white blotches that were actually exposed areas of the lining of the piece.
To quote from the article:
"...While some private collectors support restoration techniques such as air-brush painting to make the poster appear like new (over-painting the fold creases and borders, brightening the colors and in-painting any losses), these techniques are not approved by conservators or museums as they provide a false sense of newness and may actually prove damaging to the poster in the long run. The accepted conservation rule is to preserve the historical integrity of the item and only take measure that are reversible in the future. Hence the decision was made to tone in areas of loss to visually integrate the extant elements.The losses were in-painted using watercolors applied directly to the exposed areas of the paper lining. No areas of the original poster were covered by the in-painting. The goal was to enhance the viewer's enjoyment of the poster by removing the distractions of the losses without being deceptive."
December 24, 2009
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO OUR WONDERFUL READERS!
THANK YOU!
I Can See in Color
From the movie Precious
Music by Raphael Saadiq and lyrics by Mary J. Blige and LeNeah Menzies
I Can See in Color
Blige: "After seeing the film, I realized the things that Precious and I have in common. When you're depressed, you can never really see your life clearly; everything seems to be in black and white. When you choose life, like Precious did-by the end of the film, just like I did during my 'No More Drama' era, you begin to see life, and it's clearer-in color"
I hope my readers will forgive my taking a moment to vent. I love that there is more information available on the web concerning color psychology, when it is properly vetted and accurate. But I really dislike the propagation of information that is based on old information and urban legends. For example, the following article appeared on a website from Category Cloud Design: graphics, inspiration and marketing. It is attractively done and I am certain that these people mean well, are interested in educating others and are trying to show the importance of color, so please read the following copy and look for my comments at the end.
CATEGORY CLOUD design graphics inspiration marketing
{BLUE} The color of peace and tranquility. It’s been stated that people are more productive in blue rooms. Although, be careful. It can cause feelings of sadness…we
don’t want to cause people to have “A case of the Monday’s”. While blue can calm
people, it can also decrease your appetite. People typically stay away from blue foods (aside from blueberries and plums)…blue is usually an indication that something has spoiled or is poisonous. If you want to eat less, eat off of a blue plate.
{FUN BLUE FACT}: In Columbia, Blue is associated with soap. Yep, soap. Can’t get
more random than that!
leatrice eiseman Says:
Love that you are promoting the use of color and helping to educate people about it, but sorry–there are no definitive studies about blue suppressing appetite. As matter of fact, blue china and dinnerware is a big seller all over the world, cobalt blue glasses and glass plates are very popular (think Williams Sonoma and Mexican glassware) so you would think there would lots of thin people as a result, whereas people are getting fatter, especially in U.S. That is an urban legend, especially when blue berry flavors are mixed in smoothies, drinks and with yogurts. There are blue potatoes now, blue corn chips, blue m&ms, blue sweet enticements on cakes and pastries. My advice is not to pick up on the old urban legends without checking more recent and credible info. I have written seven books on color, have three websites and a blog and am always looking at more current info to update the old legends that simply are no longer true.
One more point; as I point out in my books, not all blues speak of serenity. There are electric blues,that, just as the name implies, speak of excitement and high energy.
 
December 21, 2009
One of my new 'pen pals", Joshua Moores of Washington DC wrote that his daughter was a fan of my books and sent some pictures to prove it.
I always love to connect with fellow color aficionados, so I want to share some images of my youngest 'reader'. Is she destined for a career in color consulting, or what!!
As her dad is an interior designer specializing in commercial interiors and her mom is an architect, there is a very good chance we have a budding color design specialist in the making.
  
Love the pajamas....she probably picked them out!
December 18, 2009
In Washington a Different Kind of Bubble
New York Times
December 15, 2009
Sitting atop the national mall will be a strange new site to Washingtonians.
At the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, a 145 foot tall inflatable baby blue bubble will emerge from the top of the drab gray exterior of the building and it will house a meeting hall. It will be erected only for May and October, and in storage the rest of the time.
Two air pumps would be used to inflate the baby-blue structure, "that would swell out of the top of the internal courtyard of the museum." A smaller, globe shaped structure (also baby blue) will emerge out the side of the building, creating a public lounge overlooking the mall.
As reported in the New York Times there is an ‘aura of lightness—of a building that seems ready to float off into the sky--anchored by a “gigantic tube of water”.
"The structure itself, if it is ever built, will be part of a long tradition of architects
seeking to tap into the energy and accessibility of popular culture. It includes projects like Archigram’s 1969 Instant City, which was partly inspired by the cheap, ethereal structures of postwar Los Angeles, and Peter Cook’s 1968 Ideas Circus, an informal think tank enclosed underneath a big dome that could be packed up in trucks and moved from city to city."
 
Photo courtesy Environmental Communications Photo courtesy Environmental Communications
Might this start a whole new approach to room additions?
December 14, 2009
Lighting can influence how wine tastes
10 December 2009 Mainz, Germany
The background lighting provided in a room has an influence on how we taste wine. This is the result of a survey conducted by researchers at the Institute of Psychology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. Several sub-surveys were conducted
in which about 500 participants were asked how they liked a particular wine and how much they would pay for it. It was found that the same wine was rated higher when exposed to red or blue ambient light rather than green or white light. The test persons were even willing to spend in excess of one Euro more on a specific bottle of Riesling when it was offered in red instead of green light.
„It is already known that the color of a drink can influence the way we taste it,“ says Dr Daniel Oberfeld-Twistel of the General Experimental Psychology division. “We wanted to know whether background lighting, for example in a restaurant, makes a difference as well.” The survey showed, among other things, that the test wine was perceived as being nearly 1.5 times sweeter in red light than in white or green light. Its fruitiness was also most highly rated in red light. Accordingly, one conclusion of the study is that the color of ambient lighting can influence how wine tastes, even when there is no direct effect on the color of the drink.
“The extreme lighting conditions found in some bars can undoubtedly influence the way a wine tastes,” concludes Oberfeld-Twistel. He also recommends that serious wine tasting should be conducted in a neutral light color environment.
Perhaps a partial explanation of why lighting influences the way we taste wine is that in what we perceive to be pleasant lighting conditions, we also regard the wine as being more pleasant too. Additional research is planned to provide further insight into this fascinating phenomenon.
Daniel Oberfeld, Heiko Hecht, Ulrich Allendorf and Florian Wickelmaier
Ambient lighting modifies the flavor of wine
Journal of Sensory Studies, 2009, 24(6), pp. 797-832.
December 11, 2009
For those of you who may not be aware. Lee Eiseman names the color of the year for Pantone.
The color of the year for 2010 (drumroll) is Pantone's TURQUOISE.
The Associated Press posted an article announcing Turquoise as the PANTONE Color of the
Year for 2010. In the article, editor Samantha Critchell includes quotes from Leatrice Eiseman,
Tommy Hilfiger, interior designer Charlotte Moss, Kristin Martin, brand manager at Le Creuset,
and Jane Schoenborn, design director at Lilly Pulitzer. The article has also just appeared in
top newspapers including the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune and The Miami Herald. Yahoo
Finance has mentioned it, too, showing how important color impact is in the world of finance...
Click the link below to read the full article.
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/12/07/3603525-top-color-for-2010-is-transporting-turquoise
For the full report click
http://www.pantone.com/downloads/articles/pdfs/Pantone-FCR-sp2010f.pdf
December 7, 2009
University of Michigan
News Service
December 2, 2009
Male and female shopping strategies show evolution at work in the mall
Male and female shopping styles are in our genes---and we can look to evolution for the reason. Daniel Kruger, research faculty at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, says it's perfectly natural that men often can't distinguish a sage sock from a beige sock or that sometimes women can't tell if the shoe department is due north or west from the escalator.
From an evolutionary perspective, it all harkens back to the skills that women used for gathering plant foods and the skills that men used for hunting meat. The contrast emerges because of the different foraging strategies for hunting and gathering used throughout human evolution.
Sex-specific strategies can be seen in the modern consumer environment, according to Kruger's new study, "Evolved foraging psychology underlies sex differences in shopping experiences and behaviors," scheduled for the December issue of the Journal of Social, Evolutionary, & Cultural Psychology.
The study examines shopping through the framework of evolutionary psychology to understand why so many more women enjoy spending a day picking through racks of clothes with friends, while most men can't get out of the mall fast enough.
"We have evidence that the kind of skills, abilities and behaviors that are important for hunting and gathering in current foraging societies emerge predictably in our modern consumer environment," said Kruger, who decided to conduct the study after a winter holiday trip with friends across Europe.
After exploring sleepy little villages and reaching Prague, the first thing the women wanted to do was shop, Kruger said, and the men couldn't understand why.
"But that is not so unreasonable if you're thinking about a gathering strategy," Kruger said. "Anytime you come into a new area you want to scope out the landscape and find out where the food patches are."
Kruger said that gathering edible plants and fungi is traditionally done by women. In modern terms, think of filling a basket by selecting one item at a time.
Women in foraging societies return to the same patches that yield previous successful harvests, and usually stay close to home and use landmarks as guides, he said. Foraging is a daily activity, often social, and can include young children, if necessary. When gathering, women must be very adept at choosing just the right color, texture and smell to ensure food safety and quality. They also must time harvests and know
when a certain depleted patch will regenerate and yield good harvest again.
In modern terms, women are much more likely than men to know when a specific type of item will go on sale. Women also spend much more time choosing the perfect fabric, color and texture.
Men, on the other hand, often have a specific item in mind and want to get in, get it and get out, Kruger said. It's critical to get meat home as quickly as possible. Taking young children isn't safe in a hunt and would likely hinder progress.
Of course these behaviors aren't genetically determined and don't apply to everyone, but there are consistent broad themes, he said. So why is this important?
"The value is in understanding each other---both your own shopping strategy and the strategy of the complimentary sex," Kruger said. "It helps demystify behaviors---guys, myself included, have been puzzled by why women shop the way they do."
And women can have a hard time understanding a man's aversion to it, he said.
December 4, 2009
DuPont Announces World's Most Popular Car Colors
Silver Gleams in First-Ever DuPont Global Color Rankings for 2009
12/1/09
Lee is the color expert that Dupont enlists yearly to help interpret trends
DuPont announced that silver, black and white are the top colors in the first-ever ranking of worldwide vehicle color popularity. Now in its 57th year, the annual DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Report is the original and most authoritative source for automotive color popularity information and trends with detailed breakdowns for the top automotive markets as well as this year’s newly announced top global colors.
Top Ten Global Vehicle Colors:
1. Silver – 25 percent
2. Black – 23 percent
3. White – 16 percent
4. Gray – 13 percent
5. Blue – 9 percent
6. Red – 8 percent
7. Brown/Beige – 4 percent
8. Green – 1 percent
9. Yellow/Gold – 1 percent
10. Others – <1 percent
“By gathering and analyzing color popularity data around the globe, DuPont is able to better identify trends and help our customers in the automotive industry develop color palettes for the future,” said Nancy Lockhart, color marketing manager for DuPont OEM Performance Coatings. “The auto industry is an increasingly global business, so regional and global color data are vitally important to designers.”
Although the results suggest an ongoing convergence of color choice globally with color preferences becoming more homogeneous across regions, distinct regional differences remain. The top three colors – black, white and silver – continue to show strongly around the globe with growth of these colors across regions.
“It’s important to recognize that most people today, no matter where they live in the world, have access to cutting-edge information about popular colors from many sources like glossy magazines and fashionable websites and often will see the same widely distributed films,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director, Pantone Color Institute and author of the blog Eisemancolorblog.com. “The top colors become ‘aspirational’
with a universal appeal.”
Changes Across Markets
“There are still distinct regional differences in preference, but global trends are unmistakable,” said Lockhart. “Color preference can change from year to year because of a variety of factors including types of vehicles introduced, reduced vehicle size, consumer tastes and even the economy. These and other cultural, societal and demographic influences can shift regional trends over time.”
In North America, white (17.8 percent) remains the top color choice with black (17 percent) and silver (16.7 percent) in second and third place. However, examining black’s popularity over time shows it is rising –up six percentage points from 2005 – while silver and white have dropped in popularity by about two points over the past five years. Chroma colors blue and red remain solidly popular in the North American
market, rising from 11 percent in 2006 to approximately 12 percent this year.
In Europe, the top color black (27 percent) continues to gain popularity over silver (19.9 percent), which is continuing to decline. White is growing in popularity but remains a second tier color with 10.2 percent of the market.
Japan saw a wide swing of color popularity for the year, ultimately aligning more with the North American and European markets. White remained the top color choice at 28 percent, dropping 4 points from 2008. Silver dropped five points to 23 percent, tied with black.
In contrast, the Chinese vehicle market experiences fluctuations in color preference. Silver rose four points to 36 percent for the year to remain the top color, with black dropping eight points to 23 percent as the second most popular color. As this market continues to grow there will likely be less variation year to year.
The market in India shows strong preference for silver (26.4 percent), white (23.4 percent), red (16.1 percent) and blue (10.9 percent) with the remaining colors each garnering 6 percent or less of the market. Of interest, the Russian market looks similar to India with strong chroma colors mixed throughout the rankings, most noticeably in the green area. In the Russian rankings, silver was first (23.4 percent), followed
by green (18.2 percent), black (16.7 percent), blue (15.5 percent) and red (10.8 percent).
The DuPont Global Automotive Color Popularity Report remains the authoritative ranking of color preferences and is the industry’s only report to include detailed information on the automotive markets in a variety of countries and regions, including: North America, Europe, Russia, South America, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, South Korea, China and India.
Automotive Color Trends
“In the automotive market, it is essential to forecast trends at least three years ahead of the target model year, due to the length of time it takes to develop, source and manufacture a vehicle,” said Lockhart. “As a partner with our automotive customers, DuPont develops a yearly color trends show that highlights new vehicle colors and technology advancements for the industry.”
The 2009 trend show, “Contrast of Color,” is focused on global interests in automotive coatings, using contrasting ideas to merge a complete and fresh approach to long-lasting color preferences. With the use of pigments and hue-shifting elements, traditional colors have been freshened to provide a sense of uniqueness and personality to consumers’ vehicles.
“There are many reasons to buy a new car, yet we know color is often the ‘driver’ for purchasing a vehicle,” said Eiseman. “Consumers have gotten very savvy about how and where to look for color trends and they do look for guidance on “what’s new (and newsworthy) in color.”
The color trend show uses opposite themes that evolve into one color palette of diverse, simple, complex, and upbeat color trends. The themes are defined as: “Traditional Avant-Gardist,” “Normal Maniac,” “High-Tech Ecologist” and “Global Patriot.”
The “Traditional Avant-Gardist” category exploits colors as classic and modern. These classic colors have a twist of elegance and prestige while maintaining their long-lasting appreciation. These colors – Water Desert (blue), Wooden Nickel (medium dark gray) and Winter Lavender (purple)– are expressions of historical colors remembered by generations that have been updated to fit the future trends.
The “Normal Maniac” category shows that colors can be quite simple and frankly, wild. These colors are bright and chromatic – Simple Chaos (blue), Serious Fun (green) and Running Start (yellow). Small cars, limited editions, and aftermarket usage may showcase the confidence of this palette.
The “High-Tech Ecologist” palette features natural colors with modern characteristics. As fuel-efficient vehicles are integrated into the new vehicle market, the branding of new color spaces will evolve. This soft, yet rustic, palette will have enduring appeal for consumers – Light Intensity (orange), Frozen Wave (light blue) and Microcosm (dark blue).
The “Global Patriot” category responds to the growth in global markets. Although each region has its own preferences, general color trends are shared worldwide. This global palette will relate the worldwide trend to consumer’s local demands. These familiar colors of silver, black, white, gray, blue, red and beige are updated to exhibit extensive popularity in today’s mature market in Authentic Replica (dark red), Crystal Crème
(beige) and Dark Diamond (silver).
DuPont Supports the Global Automotive Industry
In addition to paints and coatings for new cars and aftermarket applications such as collision repair, DuPont supports the global automotive and transportation industries with a vast array of products including elastomers for hoses, belts and other parts; engineering plastics for molded components; electronics products for microcircuits and flexible and printed circuits; and a variety of polyester films. The DuPont offering also includes glass-laminating products, fuel cell components, refrigerants and thermal protection materials. DuPont is working actively to introduce sustainable, bio-based materials into fabrics and engineering polymers and fuels. These products reduce dependence on petroleum resources, reduce vehicle weight and improve fuel efficiency.
DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont offers a wide range of innovative products and services for markets including agriculture and food; building and construction; communications; and transportation.
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