• Creating Color Palettes: Monika Fecht - Trend As A Cultural Reflex (Mood Boards 2007)
• Creating Color Palettes 2: Helen Gurura - The Making of an Exterior Color Palette
• Creating Color Palettes 3: Monika Fecht - Color Me 2008
• Creating Color Palettes 5: Helen Gurura - A Functional Approach to Color Use
• Creating Color Palettes 4: Monika Fecht - A World Of Contrasts (Mood Boards 2008/2009)
• XYMARA Design Award Jury bio - Monika Fecht
• XYMARA Design Award Sponsor - RENOLIT
• Creating Color Palettes 6: The Business of Color at RENOLIT
• Creating Color Palettes 7: Monika Fecht - Discover yourself!
• Review of Milan 2009 – A Serious Matter: More About Actual Design, Less About Putting on a Show
• Creating Color Palettes 9: Patricia Verlodt - What is the color over the rainbow?
• Creating Color Palettes 10: Monika Fecht - Colour Road 10/11

Transmission – Color Road 10/11

How do color stylists create the color palettes for next year's products? In the eighth of our series, Monika Fecht, Head of Design Management at RENOLIT, returns to show us her color trends for 2010/11.

Prologue by Frank Stein, text by Monika Fecht & R.C.M. and collages by Monika Fecht

What influence do current themes have upon trends in colors and fashion? Trends are a cultural reflex to all of the things that act upon us, regardless of whether they are positive or negative. This reflex takes place outside morality, distinguishing neither good from evil, nor friend from enemy, creating an aesthetic world in which everything coexists peacefully, as if in paradise. The themes of “migration”, “water scarcity” and other current future-related fears have unmistakably been transformed into color and surface trends in the coming European color trends compiled by Monika Fecht, director of the corporate design management of film specialists RENOLIT in Worms, in co- operation with French stylist R.C.M. Reason enough for Ms Fecht to present the trends as a look at the world from a European perspective.

The color range for the coming season 2010/2011 will not bring about any radical changes, the talk is rather of a season of transmission, a period of transition. The present color range will be continued, the colors of winter 2011 will follow the colors of summer, dark blue and grey tones will dominate. At the centre of the color range are the matt white tones and dry beige tones, from yellow and honey tones bleached by the sun to terracotta. The grey tones are oriented to the colors of metals. Deep green tones are inspired by vegetation, intense dark blue and blue-violet tones are growing in popularity. The dark blackberry colors will remain, heightening their intensity; strawberry, greyish pink tones and the many light variations of purple are still to be seen, but are losing considerably in significance. The theme of tactile characteristics is of increasing importance in the selection and design of the surfaces.

Open the world map by clicking on the image.

white galaxies

white galaxies +++ monads +++ artificial lights +++ fascination of pale skin +++ futurism +++ white galaxies

Inspirations, forms and material combinations:

Futuristic inspiration in design: galaxy, outer space, the appearance of a water film as seen in waterfalls, cloud formations, the colors of budding plants as yet untouched by the sun; wafer-thin translucent slices of alabaster; the fascination of pale images; white skin, transparency. Graphic sequences, sections, mini-structures. Architecture will combine stone walls and metals (Ron Arad). The world of fashion is for the most part puristic in grey and white, dark grey and silver, elegant and without heavy embellishment; check structures can be seen. There are also some softer versions, elements of folk culture, de luxe hippie patterns, soft materials, vintage look.

Materials:

White wood, cement, oxidized metal, handmade paper, fiber structures; silver, chrome, alabaster, ash, heavy silk, crêpe, flannel, raw silk, satin. The materials should have a soft touch, should induce a pleasant, living sensation.

Color tones:

Summer: white tones and off-whites, shell colors, chalk, grey-white, milk-white, beige with grey component, powder tones, white rose, flour-white, smoke-grey, cloud-grey, pearl-grey, rhino-grey, grey-blue, cement-grey, metallic grey, platinum-grey, anthracite, silver-blue, near-black, grey-black.

In winter, more yellow tones appear (sandstone, champagne), the grey tones will become darker, grey tones with a green tinge will appear.

Surfaces:

Matt surfaces dominate, glossy effects enliven the surfaces.

The furniture show in Milan in 2009 presented a number of interesting combinations of deep matt structures with high gloss surfaces.

arid earths

arid earths +++ nomads +++ sunlight +++ Sahara desert +++ camels +++arid earths

Inspirations, forms and material combinations:

Colors of the stony desert landscape, sand dunes, parched earth, dry colors.

Architecture combines metal, oxidized metal and wood.

The fashion world presents itself elegant in cashmere materials and leather, suèdes and silk.

Materials:

Clay, leather, brick, copper, gold, bronze, wax, cork, patina effects, pebble, snakeskin.

Color tones:

Summer: The colors are dry, bleached by the sun (washed-down effect), tone-in-tone, sand, golden dust, sunshine yellow, gold orange, ochre, caramel, maroon, honey, amber, copper brown, tobacco tones, brick red, rust red.

In winter, more terracotta tones appear: leather colors, mustard yellow, saffron, mandarin orange, gold bronze, oxidized rust tones, burned brick red.

green oasis

green oasis +++ paradise +++ ecological life +++ chameleon +++ tropical +++ green oasis

Inspirations, forms and material combinations:

Survival, camouflage, jungle, green design, reptiles, botanic, ecologically correct products.

The fashion world uses tweed effects, mixed weaves – no self-colors.

Color tones: Summer: eucalyptus, pistachio, lime, sage green, turquoise green, bilious green tones, green grey, khaki, yellowish greens, lime green, leaf green. Towards winter, the many green tones disappear in favor of the deep, dark greens, grey green and above all, blue green tones.

blue oceans

blue oceans +++ life +++ wellness +++ blue moods +++ Caribbean +++ blue oceans

Inspirations, forms and material combinations:

Malibu, Riviera, water, liquids, underwater world, visual effects, new functionality in architecture, mirrors, swimming pools.

Materials:

Cut-outs, origami techniques, fluorescent colors.

Color tones: Summer: turquoise, steel blue, cool mint tones, opal blue, denim blue, ink blue, royal blue, night blue, Ardois blue, blue-black, petroleum-blue, violet-blue, dark blackberry tones. Towards winter, the blue tones will become increasingly significant, the colors darker: marine blue, ink blue, China blue.

Originally published in frank.stein magazine. Reproduced by kind permission of Monika Fecht and Frank Stein.