This is the material that has made more of an impact on our surroundings than any other. A material that can be used by the biggest names in architecture and the man on the street patching up a potholed driveway. It’s this ease of use that makes concrete’s place in the modern world literally unassailable and why any technical developments in this sector need to be taken very seriously indeed ...

Color preferences for housing and furniture are strongly based on geography and climate – at some deeper level we are all aware of this.

When on holiday, it is with pleasure that we greet the shift to the blue shutters of southern France after traveling through the northern European dark greens and blues of the windows ...

Black owes a great deal to the fashions of the 20th century. During this period, it shed some of its image as the colour of mourning and invited itself to society cocktail parties as the height of luxury ...

It is common knowledge that attractive or smartly designed packaging is a key factor in selling a product. With some items, especially cosmetics, the way the product is packaged may change the functionality of the product itself. Packaging design can add a unique feeling, appeal and brand preference ...

What is texture?

Please understand I'm not being flippant with that question, it truly is vexing me right now ...

Another photoreportage from stylist and ex-Ciba^® XYMARA™ colleague Nathalie Gaullier, bringing us more of the sights, colors, energy and atmosphere from her sojourn in Cambodia!

WEILBURGER Coatings are presenting color trends for the first time this year, with the launch of their Color Trends 2009 . Pascal Kaandorp takes us through the "palettes"

Is hyper luxury a new marketing concept or a simple return to its origins? In decoration, architecture, real estate, hospitality, this odd word is on everyone’s lips from Paris to Bali, evoking splendor even more extreme than usual. And it also touches objects for our daily life, from cell phones paved with diamonds to watches and leather goods ...

Boracea is a shelter for the homeless run by the City Government of São Paulo. The project in question was initially conceived of as a way to improve its facilities, making it more comfortable.

What’s new in visual effects? What are the latest technologies which offer novel solutions for “Color and Appeal”?

Stylist and Ciba^® XYMARA™ colleague Nathalie Gaullier has taken a year out to travel the world. During this time, she will continue to inspire us by reporting on her travels, bringing us the sights, the colors, the energy and the atmosphere of those faraway places. Now here’s more from her first stop: Punta Arenas ...

Stylist and Ciba^® XYMARA™ colleague Nathalie Gaullier has taken a year out to travel the world. During this time, she will continue to inspire us by reporting on her travels, bringing us the sights, the colors, the energy and the atmosphere of those faraway places. First stop: Punta Arenas ...

Imagine eating a peach that tastes like a peach and is peach-pink, but is shiny and hard. Imagine an apple that has all an apple’s refreshing flavor, yet is soft and fuzzy. Biting into either would be a surprising experience – and maybe not a pleasant one. Texture matters; which is why people still willingly pay more for leather rather than vinyl car seats and wood floors rather than linoleum.

When Irma Boom suggested designing a book in an unusually squat size and shape, it didn't go down well with the publisher. Nor did her insistence that it should have a white cover, raggedy page edges and an introductory essay printed in type that starts off big and becomes smaller on successive pages.

When legions of jazz buffs descend on the Swiss farming town of Willisau for its annual jazz festival, they discover the streets filled with posters dedicated to Cecil Taylor, Dexter Gordon, Keith Jarrett, McCoy Tyner, the Kronos Quartet or whoever else is playing that year.

Giant, one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world, wanted to achieve the appearance of vacuum metallisation on a bicycle decal without off-line metallisation or chrome plating. The technical and application challenges that arose provided an opportunity to demonstrate how excellence in customer service and technical co-operation between supplier and consumer can result in a commercially viable product.

Vacuum-metallised pigments (VMPs) are different from “conventional” aluminium metallic pigments and formulating with them must be application specific. Learn more about the nature, effects and versatility of the use of VMPs in diverse applications!

Ciba^® XYMARA™ Marker pigments, when correctly applied, are entirely invisible under normal lighting conditions.  Yet when exposed to ultraviolet light, they glow intensely in colors that catch the eye immediately.  The effect transforms printed material, paints, plastics – anything that can be colored or coated.

The applications for such a technology are nearly limitless.  In printing, it offers an additional method of brand protection:  packaging can be printed with an invisible security design that reveals itself only when illuminated with an inexpensive UV “black light”.  In stock control, UV fluorescent printing can clearly reveal vital information such as batch numbers or product sources without interfering with the consumer package design.  Commercial printers can use XYMARA™ Marker pigments to apply invisible, precise registration and crop markings directly on the image, greatly reducing wasted paper.

The term “styling” developed in the late 1920s and early 1930s in the USA, when car sales dropped as a result of the economic crisis. Small, fine exterior touches were intended to give sales a boost. These measures were successful and since then, styling has spread to all product groups.

Since the term “styling” is fairly new, definitions tend to be similar. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as: “The act or process of imparting a stylish quality or a particular style, especially the alteration of the style of something, usually to increase the sales appeal or utility or to improve the appearance.” The Designlexikon International gives a comparable definition: “Styling means the formal, esthetic adaptation of a product in the sense of enhancing it with the aim of improving its marketability.”