Colour Trends ...

Okay, so we were saying the other day that we like the idea of using the classic colours of Louis Vuitton for the outside of the bag (without the motif) but then incorporating a different colour into the lining of the bag, or for the skin for the laptop.
I have done some research from WGSN into colour trends for Spring/Summer 2012, so that we can get an idea of what is coming into trend, and whether we want to incorporate these ideas into our product.

Colour Analysis

The colour barometer tracks the evolution and development of specific colour. The colour matrix is available as an Illustrator download tool and is user-interactive so you can build and customise your own palettes. It displays the seasonal palette in colour families from left to right, and tonal levels from top to bottom. The levels analysis explains the seasonal colour depth and tone.

Colour Inspiration

Seasonal message

In a season with no one direction or leading trend, the driving influence for colour is that of enhanced processes, which explore what we see when images pass through the camera, the computer, the printer, the internet or physically applied art, and overlays in a cycle of shift and distortion.

Applied lacquers add refinement to darks. Caked-on pigment and laser-light brights are used selectively on backdrops of desert and darkness. Mid-tones are derived through processes of time, with natural growth or synthesised ageing. Nostalgic filters alter and soften cool pastels, while veiled and impure neutrals offer a raw, minimal narrative.

Colour barometer

Pale neutrals take on a primitive and raw quality, a clear move on from the stark and unprocessed white of autumn/winter. Yellowed tones of ecru, vanilla and buttermilk are key.

Warm tones of peach, saffron and orange emerge, and brown appears as a single essential dark.

Pinks sit in both the red and purple areas; there is a brownish cast to pale pinks with tea-stained dusky hues. Life-affirming warm reds have an orange cast for coral, intense fiery shades, deeper baked reds and intense cochineal.

Layering of yellow is a key message, used tonally from retro vanilla and buttermilk through to fresh primrose and yellow-green citrus tones.

Green remains a key colour group with two distinct messages. Yellow/green cast with gleaming olive shades, and blue/green cast with the teals being replaced by softer aqua and pine.

Blue continues to provide one of the most changeable areas. Cool and clear blues move on from last summer’s turquoise, with lilac-cast blue. Indigo emerges as an important dark.

Purple and pink merge, with pink-hued purples and cool, blue-cast pinks.