1. COLOR DESIGN
A discipline which creates, interprets, identifies, selects and/or forecasts specific colors in order to enhance the function, salability and/or quality of a specific product, article, item or object.
2. COLOR DESIGNER
Members in this category are involved in the creation of colors and will participate in Contract and/or Consumer Color Directions® Forecast Workshops.
3. COLOR MARKETER
This membership category is composed of Academic members and members who are in Marketing, Technical or Design and are dealing with the application or the design, rather than the creation of color. These members will participate in Contract and/or Consumer Colors Current® Workshops and select colors that will be introduced in the next product cycle.
4. COLOR DIRECTIONS
The directional change (i.e., warmer/cooler, lighter/darker, clearer/grayer and/or the relative importance of a hue) a color family may be expected to take in either the Consumer/Residential or Contract/Commercial marketplace that are under consideration for future product introductions. Color Directions Forecast Colors frequently are variations of existing colors, but sometimes a “new” color to the market is forecast to be important, trend-defining or trend-setting and therefore “directional.
Color Directions can be described as an inclination, tendency, course or trend. The colors selected for CMG Forecasts are intended to show the course that colors may take. They are not meant to represent exact shades, or meant to be used in their precise value, hue or chroma, but to be interpreted by each member as to their usefulness in specific products. For example, one member may use a lighter value, while another may find a brighter chroma more useful.
5. CMG WORKSHOPS
Workshops are an integral part of the CMG experience. During CMG’s Conferences, members are pre-assigned to small, participatory groups to analyze color and design trends, and discuss how these trends will influence product lines.
Consumer and Contract Color Workshops
These Workshops develop a multi-industry forecast of color movement for products that are under consideration for future product introductions. They are new colors, not represented on previous CMG Forecasts and not yet visible in the marketplace. Both also require participants to be involved in Consumer/Residential or Contract/Commercial work at least 35 percent of their time.
- New Introductions - Colors that have been specified for a product not yet introduced into the market or being introduced on a product for the first time. Color designers who specify color for products and marketers who develop new products determine New Color Introductions. These colors may or may not have been previously introduced in Color forecasts.
- Established Colors - Colors that have been introduced, have been accepted in the market place and are currently selling well. Members marketing products or making color selections from existing color lines determine Established Colors
Color Visions Workshop
This Workshop explores general color direction for the future based on trends and influences that are not industry or product-specific. Color Visions Workshop particpants are contract and consumer members performing cross-industry future color research and who propose color for multiple industries. This includes members working for color forecast services or members involved in color recommendations for multiple industries. Color Visions Workshops are held during the Spring and Fall Conferences.
International Trends Sessions
These interactive sessions focus on global trends and influences that affect color and, when scheduled, take place during both CMG’s Spring and Fall Conferences.
Marketing Exchange Sessions
Marketing Exchange Sessions are open to all CMG Conference attendees. These sessions take place at both CMG’s Spring and Fall Conferences and concentrate on color marketing issues in various industries. Sometimes the format is Workshops, and sometimes these sessions will be presentations.
TechKnow Sessions
Sessions that provide CMG members with information on the very latest technology, of every type, which will affect their businesses. These sessions will take place at CMG’s Spring and/or Fall Conferences and will enable you to extend your knowledge of cutting-edge technologies affecting the color and design field.
6. WORKSHOP FACILITATORS
CMG members volunteer to serve as Facilitators of Workshops. Each has the responsibility to organize both the verbal and visual input of their Workshop participants into both a Workshop color or design board plus written notes that provide insight as to why the colors or designs were selected.
Prior to the Workshops, the Facilitator takes color chips or designs from the Worksheets of individual members and, by grouping them, assembles a basic color or design board for discussion in the Workshop sessions.
Through often spirited discussions, led by the Facilitator and documented by the Co-Facilitator, each Workshop produces a consensus color or design board and written comments that will be used by the Facilitator to represent the Workshop’s input to the Steering Committee.
7. FINAL CONSENSUS FORECAST
After CMG Workshop participants have constructed their color boards with input from each Workshop member, the Steering Committee (Workshop Facilitators, supervised by the Committee Co-Chairmen) meets to determine the content of the final forecast. Each Workshop’s color board and written and verbal comments are used as input to help come to a consensus.
The Color Forecast (Color Card) published by CMG represent the consensus-projected colors. The Forecasted Colors are interpreted by CMG members and used as input for determining the colors to be used in their product lines. Colors usually are not applied exactly as shown in the consensus, but are varied to fit market and technical requirements.
8. HUE, VALUE AND CHROMA
Just as a box has the three dimensions of height, width and depth — color has the three dimensions of hue, value, and chroma.
Hue is a color’s relative position on the color wheel. Hue is that attribute of color that tells you if the color is red or green or blue or yellow … the color family of a color. Use the words warmer and cooler when describing hue differences.
Value is a color’s lightness or reflectivity as measured against a gray scale from white at the top to black at the bottom. Use the words lighter and darker when describing value differences.
Chroma is a color’s intensity, purity, clarity, or saturation measured by its departure from grayness. Use the terms clearer and grayer when discussing differences in chroma.
9. VALUES OF FORECAST COLORS
To allow visualization of the ways CMG’s Color Directions Forecast Colors may be varied when applied and to make them more immediately useful, CMG publishes “Values” of Forecast Colors from the Consumer Color Directions and Contract Color Directions. The hue does not change.
10. METAMERISM
Metamerism is a scientific description of a common color phenomenon: two color samples which appear to match under one light source no longer match when viewed under a different light source.
For example, two colors may be a virtually perfect match under daylight, but become a mismatch under incandescent light. This is because the two samples were made using different colorants. The different colorants reflect light differently, giving each sample a different reflectance curve. Whenever two colors appear to match but do not have the same curve, a “metameric match” exists.
The phenomenon of metamerism also can occur as the light source changes.
Just as every color sample has a reflectance curve, every light source has a spectral power distribution curve, which shows the different amounts of energy being emitted at different points in the visible spectrum. A light source is one of three components of a color; the other two are the colored object and the observer (a person or device). Whenever the light source changes, the color must change as well. Metamerism occurs when two matching colors change in different ways, by shifting in different directions.
All light sources and combinations of light sources have different spectral power distribution curves that affect color matches when the reflectance curves of the color samples are different.
11. GEOMETRIC METAMERISM
Two colored objects may appear as a mismatch even though they are coated with or are made from the same material and are viewed under the same light source. This may be because their surface textures or surface particle sizes or orientations are different. This variation results in geometric metamerism.
Color Marketing Group®, CMG®, Color Directions®, International ColorLink®, ColorChips®, Color Designer®, and Colors Current® are terms registered by Color Marketing Group.
Back to Top
|