A couple of weeks ago Benjamin Moore presented a webinar entitled ‘Three Centuries of Color’, of which I earnestly attended, spell bound in the front row in my jimjams, computer on lap. Through time we went, each decade producing a color palette that reflected its own history in our nation. Oh how we flit from one extreme to another - and also, how interesting that color has been part and parcel of our history.
As an associate member of the IACCNA, my core beliefs remind me not to follow color trends. But I gotta tell ya, this is huge! These palettes from decades past are not just trendy colors, merely decorative for the sake of marketing. They are the product of history, inherent in our memories of the events associated with them and are part of every fiber of our being.
One of the most interesting ideas from this seminar is how palettes shift with the decades. Even numbered decades produce subdued cooler hues, edgy design whereas the odd decades reveal soft and warm colors. Just hearing that, I crave some comfort food.
There are future dates scheduled for this webinar and I highly recommend it.
Sad to say, with the Gulf Oil disaster, the West Virginia mining accident and Icelandic volcano eruptions look for shades of black and gray as my global forecast for the decade.
Here is a sampling from the webinar:
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6 comments:
Nothing beats taking a course in your "jimjams", especially one as facsinating as this! I love the history of color, it's fun to see the palettes that represented these decades. A whole study should be done on the even vs odd phenomenon, I wonder why it worked out that way. Be interesting to look at other even/odd trends too.
Let's pray the black & grayness of all these tragedies takes a brighter tone soon.
HI, Elizabeth. I attended the webinar, as well and, although it was interesting to see the color palettes that BM put together for each decade, I wanted a little more information about WHY those exact colors were selected. There's definitely something to trend-shifting and the cultural and economical influence on color throughout history...something that I also find fascinating... I just would have liked to have seen a little more specific info rather than "'earth tones' were popular in the 70s."
Ben Moore...can you do a follow-up please? ;)
btw - you definitely pulled out the best parts of the webinar for your post. thanks for the re-cap!
Kelly,
Yes, I agree, it was just a survey course on a very broad and fascinating topic indeed. A lifetime of research awaits us.
Jessica...just had to throw in the jim jams. What a great word!
I still think there's a place for colour trends, I'm an associate member of IACC too. Fun colour palettes!
This is fascinating! Each color palette is like it's own time machine--really sparks your imagination.
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