Working Wonders With Wood II - New Degrees of Freedom

By Le Vin Chin

Last week saw the release of the eleven new Color Evolution * Wood stylings into XYMARA.com’s revamped Effect Explorer – our tool for visualizing colors and effects in 3-D, based on real-world surfaces – on our new Color Catcher™ Wood forms for maximum visual impact! The bringing of novel and exciting visual surface effects for the next generation of wood surfaces represents the culmination of our recent work in supporting, enhancing and extending the usage and usability of wood in design.

From construction material to fuel, wood, of course, is and continues to be an attractive material to work with. It is easy to work; it is light, but strong; it is intrinsically decorative, with its multitude of natural hues and grains. Wood has been a traditional material through the ages, and the developments of recent times have only reinforced its applicability today and for the future: wood is a natural, renewable resource – when responsibly and sustainably managed. New, technological developments now mean that we have tools to make mass-produced, complicated forms (for example, curved surfaces which are perfectly in tension) and that we can keep its natural beauty and freshness for longer.

With Color Evolution * Wood, we provided eleven researched “trend styling” solutions for wood for the period 2008-2010, to create new design possibilities and to add valuable visual impact to designs for wood and wood products (for example, veneers, composites, plywood, recycled wood …).

Now we have “measured” these new stylings into our Effect Explorer, so that you can see them in all their glory. Our Effect Explorer utilizes proprietary Color Viz rendering technology which, unique in the field, allows 3-D visualization of real, instrumentally-measured surfaces, as opposed to the theoretical colors you normally see on display screens.

For this purpose, we have also developed a new shape, our Color Catcher™ Wood form, to maximize your visual understanding of each effect, being, as they are, complex combinations of color, transparency and optical effect. The Color Catcher™ Wood form takes inspiration from elements found in doors, windows, picture frames, wall panels, and furniture – wherever wood is commonly used – and shows off the full range of a styling’s effects in a single piece, due to the curved and flat elements of its surface.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, we developed the innovative application technology to enable these stylings – incorporating the latest colorants and effects pigments – to be implemented on any wooden surface. With a trend towards durable, colored transparent colors on wood for outdoor use, our expertise also ensures that wood surfaces stay longer as they are, preventing wood from changes over time of color and aspect due to light (Ciba® LIGNOSTAB® and Ciba® TINUVIN® light stabilizers), moisture, biological attack (Ciba® IRGAGUARD® bactericides and algicides) and other atmospheric exposure – even scratching and scuffing.

Exciting colors and effects, better performing surfaces – that’s the new wonder of wood!

• Working wonders with wood – without going against the grain
• Launch of Color Evolution * Wood
• Effect Explorer
• Launch of Effect Explorer v. 2.0 and inclusion of eleven new stylings for wood from Color Evolution * Wood
• Color Evolution * Wood