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Dear Xymara Reader
Welcome to the very first Ciba® XYMARA™ monthly newsletter!
Thank you for subscribing!
Ciba® XYMARA™ offers its visitors a resource for discovering high-quality
visual effects. The website www.xymara.com brings combinations of colors
and effects to life on screen through the use of a 3-D visualization technology
in its "Effect Explorer" to facilitate the creation of striking and unique designs
for all industrial and commercial applications.
We hope you enjoy exploring our world of effects!
Le Vin Chin
Editor-in-chief
xymara.com
News
What's new and what's happening in the world of effects? We provide information on design trends, market players, novel products and innovative technologies.
Events
Where to go to find inspiration - or to meet your network of contacts? We highlight the most influential design shows, trade shows and press events.
Designers Corner
All about design, from inspiration to concrete examples, via interviews with designers and features on events and trends.
Color Trend Research (EXCLUSIVELY in the XYMARA Newsletter)
In-depth studies on the science, art and philosophy of color and design, republished from the Ciba® XYMARA™ Color Trend Vision package.
INMYXMAG
Highlights from xymara.com's companion online magazine, INMYX, to be launched next month!
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Ciba Specialty Chemicals has launched Color Trend Vision to provide designers,
converters, and paint, ink and masterbatch producers with global and regional
color trend forecasts and information, design tools, technology, consulting services
and products for coatings, inks and plastics applications.
Read full story on www.xymara.com
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Demand for pearlescent and metallic effects is high and the XYMARA™
product range of effect pigments is Ciba Specialty Chemicals' shimmer-rich response to that need.
Read full story on www.xymara.com
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What goes into the design of a brand? From the initial brand concept to the final branded object, the 11th annual FUSE: Brand Identity + Package Design Conference ...
Read full story on www.xymara.com
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"Styling" is an in-word today, used in many contexts. But what does it really mean,
who uses it and how? In their different ways, the designer, the application technician
and the consumer all make use of and benefit from styling.
Read full story on www.xymara.com
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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.
Read full story on www.xymara.com
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A study of color trends in a particular field of application shows that the popularity
of defined color groups can only be understood in relation to the values of the users at the time.
Every new color trend is created through a new value or one perceived as altered by the social group in which it has originated.
There are numerous reasons for value changes, the main one being the emotional process of seeing and experiencing. Visual and/or emotional influences,
changes in socio-structural and social circumstances and the perception of new life styles - primarily through the media - affect the way in which we react to color.
The consequences of this are collective and can scarcely be influenced; further developments can only be affected to a limited extent, if at all.
To forecast new or collective preferences in the choice of color sets, the group - the defined cultural grouping or region comprising people with a similar life
style and set of values - must be analyzed in terms of a predefined mood or set of circumstances.
This mood (collective emotion) can be associated with a color or a group of colors by examining the general cultural perception of this grouping or region.
This association can be verified by ascertaining how a similar mood or set of circumstances affected the popularity of similar colors some a point in the past.
When energy prices rise, for example, warm, value-creating earth shades become popular. When the economy is flourishing, clear primary colors predominate.
Implementing color psychology findings
A case study from Europe
In a color psychology survey carried out in 1988, 56% of all respondents perceived green as the most "soothing" shade while 21% chose blue. Green was officially classified as soothing in color psychology studies of the 70s and this resulted in countless variations of green being used inside buildings. At the time, blue played almost no role as a color with a soothing effect, but it has now overtaken green in this respect.
There is never a single overriding reason for such striking developments. One of the main and most common reasons that seems to have played a role in green being replaced by blue is the loss of premium value through overkill.
A color chosen very frequently on account of its high popularity conditions the period of its use and is thus culturally connected with this period. It is regarded as a typical shade of its time.
The human urge to move on gives rise to the desire to move away from this color. Progressive avoidance of a color thus prevents permanent glut. This mechanism also works the other way round:
Security through familiarity
Besides the wish to advance, we humans also have a strong emotional desire for security. Looking back on positive or pleasant experiences results in retrospective reactions: familiar colors from former years are chosen to revive pleasant memories, often seen through rose-tinted spectacles because they date from so long ago.
Nostalgia and excess alternate as motives for choosing or rejecting colors. The study of a single culture, therefore, often reveals alternation between growth and decline in popularity.
Retro as a contemporary copy
A comparison of new versions of "old" colors with the originals - which might also have been retro in their time - clearly shows slight shifts in shade, i.e. variations on the original. When "old" shades are copied, those that become popular and have the potential to establish themselves are often a tone lighter/darker or warmer/colder.
One example of this is the sporty, dark denim blue of the early 80s. In 2006, this color became popular in North Europe and North America amongst a group similar in age to that of 25 years ago. However, it completely lost its fresh, vibrant green component. This time the blue shade took on slightly grayish, deeper and cooler tones. A predominant trend - extending to several color groups - toward darker and/or grayish colors (retro-elegance trend) thus influenced the "old" shades and contemporary interpretation created a new color.
Attractive effects
When forecasting trends in the popularity of specific colors, an additional determining factor besides the effect and mechanism of color re-incarnation must be taken into account: innovation in technical feasibility and/or value creation through the generation of individual, previously unknown features and effects. The enhancing property of a color is determined by the material and structure of its surface and the prevailing light conditions. The acceptability of effects such as glossy or matt, shimmery or dull, deep or superficial is subjective. Effect pigments can control perception, thereby creating a further color dimension, i.e. flip-flop effects.
It is no longer color alone, but also the appearance of a surface that creates a lasting impression that is either attractive or unattractive. Like the growth and decline of the popularity of a color, the additional effect is either innovative and apt or overdone and inappropriate.
Oliver Spies, Graduate in Design,
Visual research, Berlin
The Ciba® XYMARA™ Color Evolution Guide is part of Ciba Specialty Chemicals'
Color Trend Vision design and technology package.
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