February 12, 2009
Roses Are Red...
but not always. As we approach Valentine's Day, I ask, where does color play a role in the gifts we give and the messages we send? When I think of Valentine's Day, roses immediately come to mind. Sometimes a rose is just a rose, but it’s still fun to understand the traditional meaning behind the colors of roses. To find out what message you could be sending with your bouquet, check this: rose color guide.

Currently showing in Minnesota is an exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts called INDIA: Public Places, Private Spaces. This groundbreaking event features the contemporary work of 28 Indian photographers and video artists who highlight the color of India’s public realm, while relishing rare access to its private lives and legends. Ending on January 18th, it’s a true “can’t miss” experience that will force you to see India in a fresh, new light.

For more information and to view a short video with insight into the exhibit, click on the link below.

http://artsmia.org/india-ppps/

Below are links to some of the most imaginative pieces designed. Hope this will give you a little color inspiration for today. But beware, the workplace is about productivity, and these beautiful colors could easily side track your agenda!

http://weburbanist.com/2008/01/24/more-unusual-art-from-everyday-materials-16-post-it-note-pranks-sculptures-and-murals/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/post-it-art/pool/

http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/pastpresent/stories_art.html

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/08/31/post-it-art-productivity-in-many-wonderful-colors/

After using the same ball since the year 2000, the Times Square Alliance announced last November that there was a new ball in town. During its unveiling at a press conference it was publicized that the “new” New Year’s Eve Ball is a 12 foot geodesic sphere, double the size of previous balls, and weighs 11,875 pounds. Covered in 2,668 Waterford Crystals and powered by 32,256 Philips Luxeon Rebel LEDS, the new ball is capable of creating a palette of more than 16 million vibrant colors and billions of patterns producing a spectacular kaleidoscope effect atop One Times Square. The organizers also announced that the new ball will become a year-round attraction above Times Square in full public view January through December.

For more about this year’s ball and ones from history, follow this link: www.timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye_ball.html.

Here’s to a happy and colorful New Year.

The New York Times: A Guide to the Holiday Window Displays. Let the creativity of these designers and the colors they use inspire you.

Happy holidays!

On view at both the San Diego Museum of Artand the Timken, Kimono as Art features 40 monumentally scaled kimono by Kubota that have seldom been seen outside of Japan. The exhibition includes a selection from his Mt. Fuji series, depicting Japan’s most famous mountain, and Symphony of Light, the centerpiece of his career.

Kubota used a variety of traditional techniques and personal innovations to create his masterpieces. Through a complex layering of dyes, inks, and embroidery, he produced shimmering, abstract landscapes on eight-foot-tall kimono. A single kimono could take up to one year to complete and was created for exhibition purposes rather than to be worn. Kubota was fascinated with the effects of light on color and often used nature as a subject in his works.

On view at the Timken are six works, including three kimono from Kubota’s Mt. Fuji series—a popular subject in the arts of Japan—depicting Japan’s famous mountain at three different times of day. On view at SDMA is part of Kubota’s magnum opus, Symphony of Light. This breathtaking, panoramic installation features 30 kimono placed side by side depicting the changing season of fall to winter. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with a foreword by all three museum directors, over 150 color illustrations, and two scholarly essays, including one by the exhibition’s guest curator and Asian textile specialist, Dale Carolyn Gluckman.

Both Museums are located in Balboa Park, in the heart of the city of San Diego.

Exhibition: Now through January 4, 2009

MacDonald's protagonists were often intelligent and introspective men, sometimes with a hard cynical streak. Travis McGee, the "salvage consultant" and "knight in rusting armor," is a character who makes his living doing favors for friends who have no other recourse, then taking his cut. All titles in the 21-volume series include a color, and the novels feature an ever-changing array of female companions, plus an appearance by a sidekick known only as "Meyer," a retired economist.

McGee had his trademark lodgings on his 52-foot houseboat Busted Flush, named for the poker hand that started the run of luck in which he won her. She's docked at Slip F-18, Bahia Mar marina, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. If you stop at the marina near Fort Lauderdale specifically to visit Slip F-18 (where Busted Flush was usually moored) the slip is empty, with a small plaque mentioning Busted Flush.

Travis McGee novels

In chronological order:

• (1964) The Deep Blue Good-by
• (1964) Nightmare in Pink
• (1964) A Purple Place for Dying
• (1964) The Quick Red Fox
• (1965) A Deadly Shade of Gold
• (1965) Bright Orange for the Shroud
• (1966) Darker than Amber
• (1966) One Fearful Yellow Eye
• (1968) Pale Gray for Guilt
• (1968) The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper
• (1969) Dress Her in Indigo
• (1970) The Long Lavender Look
• (1972) A Tan and Sandy Silence
• (1973) The Scarlet Ruse
• (1973) The Turquoise Lament
• (1975) The Dreadful Lemon Sky
• (1978) The Empty Copper Sea
• (1979) The Green Ripper
• (1981) Free Fall in Crimson
• (1982) Cinnamon Skin
• (1985) The Lonely Silver Rain

Those of us who enjoy the visual media of film will truly relish this historical look back at the 1930s and the introduction of a new technology. Scott Higgins argues that filmmakers and designers rapidly worked through a series of stylistic modes based on the demonstration, restraint, and integration of color. Like Dorothy waking up over the rainbow in the Land of Oz, Hollywood discovered a vivid new world of color in the 1930s. The introduction of three-color Technicolor technology in 1932 gave filmmakers a powerful tool with...Harnessing the Technicolor Rainbow - by Scott Higgins and shows how the color conventions developed in the 1930s have continued to influence filmmaking to the present day...

For a look at how color can forever be a part of someone’s life, check out www.colorfulbabynames.com. As it says on the homepage, “Add a splash of color to the baby name you are choosing for your infant!”

Names are in hue categories and then identified by specific name, color variation, origin (if known) and proposed gender. From names like Melina and Yahto to origins from Latin to Vietnamese to American Sioux, the choices are varied and sometimes surprising. Did you know Floyd was considered Grey and is of Celtic/Welsh origin?

Aside from helping in the baby naming process, it is a fun source of additional color names and a start point for color name research. Enjoy.

For a special treat to yourself, dine at The Modernon the ground floor of the museum.

“Language of Color” examines not just the uses of color for camouflage, mating, and warning, it also examines the structure of color, highlighting how the color blue, for example, is not made from pigments, as yellow and red are, but rather through physical structures that absorb longer wavelengths of light. Similarly, green is most often created by creatures that have yellow pigment augmented by these blue physical structures.

Colors are also viewed differently by different creatures. Some, such as whales, do not have the color vision that humans do; their world is black and white. Other animals, like bees, see colors in the ultraviolet spectrum that humans don’t, perceiving patterns on flowers invisible to the human eye.

Via Translating the color codeby Alvin Powell, Harvard News Office

Some theorists say it’s your aura color. This mystic aura represents who you are and what you were born to do. I don’t believe in it, but maybe just a little today.

What's your aura color?

The resultsof the meeting are now available on the CMG Members’ website. Here you can access the Latin American 2008 Report Back, the Photo Gallery presentation and the NCS Notations.

Hope to see you all at the CMG Fall International Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, November 7-11, 2008.

The Death of Trends Series

The Death of Trends, Part 1

The Death of Trends, Part 2

The Death of Trends, Part 3

How is the fragmentation of influence sources changing your new product decisions?

For those of you who have the iPhone, Style.com and Chanel have applications for viewing the most recent fashions on your phone. Log into your iTunes account and view Applications > Lifestyle.

Global Graphics: Color - Designing with Color for an International Marketis packed with information on the color customs that will influence public response to advertising campaigns, annual reports, brochures, packaging and more. Learn to avoid cultural taboos: from the colors associated with money to the colors associated with mourning.

John Gage considers every conceivable aspect of the subject in a groundbreaking analysis of color in Western culture from the ancient Greeks until the late twentieth century. He describes the first theories of color, articulated by philosophers from Democritus to Aristotle, and subsequent attempts by the Romans and their Renaissance disciples to organize it systematically or endow it with symbolic power. He unfolds its religious significance and its us in heraldry.

The twentieth century is often called the period when color has finally come into its own. This is the first ever attempt to examine seriously what this claim means, and to suggest answers to many perennial questions about the role of color in Western art and thoughts. It will be of consuming interest to artists, historians of art and culture, linguists, psychologists, and anyone fascinated by this most inescapable evocative element of our perceptions.

Color and Culture: Practice and Meaning from Antiquity to Abstraction by John Gage

Cymbolism is an attempt to quantify the association between colors and words, making it simple for designers to choose the best colors for the desired emotional effect. Cymbolism tracks these associations over time (and in future versions by user demographics) to help designers to better create designs for the desired effects.

Cymbolism: Exploring the theory of color symbolism, this new website tracks the feelings, moods and emotions of people based upon their real-time perceptions of certain colors. The site's blog provides a lengthy explanation about the history of color psychology, as well as cultural discrepancies and behavioral implications around color association, but per its mission statement, the website exists primarily to help designers make more appropriate color choices to achieve the "desired emotional effect" when creating new products and services.

www.cymbolism.com

An Eye For Color, a hard covered book by Olga De La Roza, instructs readers in how to develop their color sense. De La Roza shares her easy to follow system to create an index of color patterns which provide context much like what painters, graphic fashion and furniture designers use. All the chapters are organized by color and each section begins with a work from a designer or painter. The colors of that work are then identified in both RGB & CMYK configurations. A brief about the artist's inspiration for the use of color and how it is interpreted is included as well. The technical, emotional and artistic qualities of the work are also described. The reader can then match to Pantone chips or colors in Photoshop® in order to begin their own personal color development.

Fashion Designer and Creative Consultant, Darius Monsef IV, founded COLOURlovers. He says, “Our site is edgy, revolutionary, and works from the bottom up, not from the top down. It represents a new way to think about color and design. We gather creative professionals into an online community where they can share ideas about color and influence others.”

Many people are on the fence when it comes to the research of this condition. Still many psychologists push forward. They are looking at brain scans to determine the differences between a Synesthete versus a Non-Synesthete, and they are studying family cases to determine the hereditary link of Synesthesia. Bryan Alvarez, a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, is doing what he calls, "MeSearch"—researching the condition that he lives with. He will be speaking on his research findings at the 7th Annual National Conference of the American Synesthesia Association on September 26th at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. For more information on Synesthesia and the conference speakers, check out their website.

www.synesthesia.info/upcoming.html

Bryan, and two students from Yale, have posted separate videos on Current.com, explaining and discussing what they see and how color plays such a big role in their lives. Both videos are about 5 minutes long, here are the links

http://current.com/items/89042945_see_sounds_hear_colors

http://current.com/items/88948369_synesthesia_video

The Opening Ceremony (scheduled to air tonight on NBC at 8pm EST) will boast radiant reds, intense natural greens, and glorious summer golds. These colors, chosen for their specific meanings, are just three of the six official colors of the Games.

Color is intimately intertwined in Chinese history, and they have given special attention to designing the color scheme for the 2008 Games. For descriptions and inspiration behind the colors, check out these links:

www.beijing-travel-guide.com
(Under Olympics click on Olympic Colors)

www.ibiblio.org/chinesehistory/contents/07spe/olympics/image.colors.htm
(Love the photos!)

Closely connected to the chosen colors are the designs used to represent the Games. Both the Official Emblem and Mascots express the grand tradition of spreading good wishes through signs and symbols. The Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots, carrying a message of friendship and peace. These little guys are really cute and their inspirational meanings are very touching. Once you see them you will immediately recognize the influence of Chinese folk art and ornamentation.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/bocog/concepts/index.shtml

Interested in other aspects of the Games? Visit the Official Olympic Home Page.

http://en.beijing2008.cn/en.shtml

140 Named Colors---
Over the last few years, all of the major browsers have included support for a special set of 140 colors that are recognized by their color name within HTML or CSS code. Rather than having to remember that the color orange is specified with the hex code #FFA500, you can simply type the word “orange” when specifying a color in your code and the browser will automatically translate it to its hex code.

Here is a link to the 140 Named Colors, which you can quickly sort by color family or name. You can also sign up to receive blog news from Color Schemer at this site.

Although now out of print, these books are still available through Amazon and used booksellers. Here is another reader's review:

"Gifted author, wordsmith, scribe, literary craftsman, all of these describe Massachusetts writer Alexander Theroux. And he proves it in The Primary Colors. Sometimes eccentric, always entertaining, each of these essays reads like one man's imaginative, magical dialogue. To Theroux, 'Blue is a mysterious color, hue of illness and nobility; the rarest color in nature.'

It is, of course, also Windex, Blue Willow china, bluegrass, and even baseball player Vida Blue. And, it is the favorite color of the Amish with their blue gates. In the author's gifted hands the color does not limit his discourse, but is a springboard for a trip around the world.

Rather than suggesting age, cowardice or decay, yellow to Theroux is a positive hue—a reminder of the sun, spring, and much of autumn's beauty. This sunny shade is light, perfume and the color of the Cadillac driven by Sammy Glick in 'What Makes Sammy Run.'

Calling red the boldest of colors, Theroux writes, 'It stands for charity and martyrdom, hell, love, youth, fervor, boasting, sin, and atonement.' From Tabasco sauce to rubies to London buses and fezzes, the author's observations regarding crimson are both witty and surprising."

And from Publisher's Weekly:
In Orange he veers from Chaucer's Chaunticleer to Halloween to Al Jolson's joyous shout "Velveeta!" Each color calls forth a multitude of associations drawn from daily life, art, literature, myth, history, music, science, film, cuisine, religion, until each hue seemingly defines an arc encompassing the whole world. Purple stimulates Theroux to imaginative leaps as he contemplates the color of sanctity, wit, devotion, vanity, majesty, truth. The essay on green hops from baseball slugger Ted Williams' eyes to poet Anne Sexton's "Suicide Note" as Theroux plumbs "the ambiguous color of life and death." What might have been a random assortment of trivia becomes in Theroux's palette an education of the senses and emotions, a magical tour of the visible landscape, an exploratory adventure of continual discovery and enchantment. (From Publisher's Weekly)

"Colors are the deeds and sufferings of light," is a quote from Goethe that opens one of these books.

Here’s what they told the folks at Crayola.

• Kids feel great about doing well in school.
• Kids want to help protect the planet.
• Kids believe that anyone can be a celebrity.
• Outdoor activities are fun for kids.
• Kids love having fun with parents, their best friends.
• Kids want everyone’s dream to come true.
• Kids want everyone’s story to be a happy one.
• Kids want their homes to feel like a warm, cozy bear hug.

And here’s the colors that express those thoughts. Can you match the color name to the idea above?

• Happy Ever After
• Awesome
• Best Friends
• Giving Tree
• Bear Hug
• Famous
• Fun in the Sun
• Super Happy

See if you were right and meet the 2008 Kids Choice Colors.

VManpresents SUIT YOURSELF detailing how fall suits will combine elegant fine tailoring, clean lines, and a whiff of smoky nostalgia, plus an exclusive photo shoot of supermodel Tyson Ballou, shot by the famous fashion photographer, Bruce Weber.

In Wallpaper*, view the Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren exhibition in London and also catch up on Tom Ford's Q & A session held at Milan's Men's Spring Summer 09 collections show during fashion week. Tom Ford is the designer name on everyone's lips right now as he returns to Milan to open his first retail store in Europe.

Surfacepresents an incredible slide show, Shadows and Light, displaying fashion designer Sunao Kuwahara's Tokyo shop designed by key architect Steve Lidbury. Lidbury has designed lyrical refinement by expertly sewing together forms and materials for this retail space.

Men's Voguestyle section highlights the best of stylemakers at great length. Read how it is good to be green as a group of idealistic menswear designers are now sprucing up to the eco movement.

Perhaps these sites will inspire new contract directions for the upcoming CMG Fall Contract Workshops.

Take a walk on the color-wise side with Interview Magazine’s June/July issuethat pays tribute to its founder, Andy Warhol, perhaps the greatest colorist of all time. Trace Warhol to his roots through this issue:

THE COVER STORY: Features fashion designer Marc Jacobs commenting on the Warholian pleasures of mixing business and art.

FASHION: Displays an upbeat, hip video featuring look-a-likes of Warhol superstars such as International Velvet, Bianca Jagger, Candy Darling, and Little Joe, plus more.

FACTORY WORKERS: Find out what inspired the Factory and how the color silver was used as the perfect foil.

ART: Features 14 new artists reflecting on Andy’s visions and dozens of his famous friends remembering the Pop guru.

GALLERY: Find out why his Time Capsules are considered Pop archeology.

Warhol captured with his art something irresistible about the zeitgeist of American culture in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. His vision lives on in the eyes of artists and designers who do business like it’s an art. Check out New York Magazine: "Warhol’s Children".

As last summer’s Hairsprayprovided a revival of the sixties trends and fashions, get ready for an incredible invitation for one of the greatest ‘feel good’ musical wedding celebrations in Abba’s Mama Mia the Movie. It features our favorite Abba music of all time. The gorgeous settings of Greece should stimulate and inspire breath-taking lush colors of landscapes, oceans, and sunsets amidst wonderful seventies settings and musical beats.

Check out Cry Babyon Broadway, which has an incredible, hip web site. It’s a really neat example of excellent creative color marketing and graphic design. Consider it a groovy trip down rock and roll memory lane. Be sure to view the ‘fun stuff’ section on the web site to get the real flavor of the fifties before Elvis was King. This really hip musical, based on the famous John Waters’ cult movie of the same title, features paraphernalia of retro, kaleidoscopic colors at its best. Yes, you will find out that it’s simply okay to be a cool cat and make the scene, Daddy-O. It should also be noted that Cry Baby's composer and lyricist, Adam Schlesinger, is the son of CMG's PR Consultant, Bobbi Schlesinger.

When it comes to fabulous fashion, it’s the new Sex and the Citymovie as Patricia Field, fashion stylist, once again weaves her major touches as she did in The Devil Wears Prada. In this fashion savvy film, vibrant colors, high fashion styles, and the beauty of New York are in splendid details. The May 23, 2008 issue of Entertainment Weeklyfeatures 63 pages of our four favorite gal pals: Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha on estrogen overload and looking their best.

Looking for a little drama and controversy, the movie, Savage Gracebased on the famous eighties award winning novel, tells the incredible true story of Barbara Daly, who married above her class to Brooks Baekeland, the dashing heir to the Bakelite plastics fortune. This Sundance Film and Cannes Film Festival stunner features the use of high fashion styles and costumes of the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s in rich color palettes. Spanning from 1946 to 1972, it is filmed in New York, Paris, Spain, and London. It’s a tour of beautiful homes and cities as a famous wealthy family falls from grace. The strong use of color psychology is used in lighting many forbidden and mysterious scenes of this dysfunctional, globetrotting family. It’s a sensual and grand decadent journey where truth is much more shocking than fiction, colorfully and visually speaking.

Just imagine, you, too, can be an Abba “Dancing Queen” this summer by color refueling through movies, theatre and fashion. Be sure to RSVP to Sophie’s wedding in Mama Mia the Movie at a theatre near you on July 18, 2008. You may want to reference fashion styles from Sex and the City for the appropriate outfit to wear in making the scene! Color and Fashion Forward!

Aqua USA will appear as a “normal” structure, until you get close and see the effect of the different sized balconies that create a water-like ripple effect. Organic, nature-like movement shapes the outside of this building like no other.

To see a video on Aqua’s construction, go to: www.lakeshoreeast.com/aqua/video-hi.html

For quick facts on Aqua USA, check out: www.chicagoarchitecture.info/Building/913/Aqua.php

Another amazing structure going up in the windy city is The Chicago Spire. Inspired (again) by nature, the building will provide 1200 residences. Their website gives all kinds of interesting information on the project, including its inspiration, actual floorplans and the full 360 degree view from any floor. Check out: www.thechicagospire.com

Enjoy NeoCon everyone and keep that organic design comin’ !

• Need a place to explore visual thinking, try http://wiki.vizthink.com
• To explore innovation, try http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com
• To explore creative thinking, try http://www.virtualsalt.comor http://creativequotations.com

Summer is here and you may actually be planning a relaxing vacation. If you are a reader, check out some recent books on innovation or imagination.

Gelb, Michael. Innovate like Edison, 2007
The five competencies of innovation are highlighted in this book. One is “Kaleidoscopic Thinking.” The chapter name alone brings to mind reflection and pattern. Additional elements include expressing ideas visually and exploring the road not taken.

Kelley, Tom. The Ten Faces of Innovation, 2005
This and Kelley’s previous book, The Art of Innovation, present the strategies used at IDEO. This book defines ten roles in the creative process, but more interestingly reveals the true character of the “devil’s advocate” and how to beat it.

May, Matthew E. The Elegant Solution, 2007
This book is about Toyota’s formula for innovation. May describes the elegant solution as one that is “recognized by the juxtaposition of simplicity and power.” p. 5

Manu, Alexander. The Imagination Challenge, Strategic Foresight and Innovation in the Global Economy, 2007
The end of the book contains a workbook that “provides a methodology for strategic creativity as a source of change and is a comprehensive guide to using the imagination to generate exceptional services, products, and systems.” p. 167

Michalko, Michael. Thinkertoys, 1991.
Even though this book is not new, it is a must have handbook for creative thinking techniques. http://www.creativethinking.net

Razeghi, Andrew. The Riddle: Where Ideas Come From and How to Have Better Ones, 2008
A scientific approach to what is needed in an environment to nurture creativity, this book has great chapter summaries and creative exercises.

Rushkoff, Douglas. Get Back in the Box, Innovation from the Inside Out, 2005
This book focuses on the rebirth of old ideas and values in a new context that is the renewal of core values and competencies.

Saltzman, Joel. Shake that Brain! 2006
This books starts with preparing your attitude for creative thinking and then provides over a dozen techniques to generated new ideas.

Edie Weiner and Arnold Brown, Future Think, How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change, 2006
This book helps the reader understand their personal biases to seeing change. It provides several methods to see the big picture and to stimulate creative thinking.

Scientific American Reports currently has a special issueout on the newsstands until mid July that focuses on perception. It is an anthology of over 20 articles. Of special interest to color professionals are the articles on camouflage, transparency, motion, and illusionary color and the brain.

"Illusory Color and the Brain" shows illusions that suggest that the brain does not separate perception of color from perception of form and depth. "Most researchers who study vision agree that color helps us discriminate objects when differences in brightness are insufficient for this task." Similarly the brain can be tricked into seeing colors by the processing of other image characteristics, such as shade and boundary.

"Many people believe that color is a defining and essential property of objects, one depending entirely on the specific wavelengths of light reflected from them. But this belief is mistaken. Color is a sensation created in the brain." p. 83.

One of the exciting articles is "A Moving Experience" with examples of how the sense of motion can be created from stationary images. The examples in the article are from psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka of Kyoto, Japan. In addition to this article, you can learn more about his spinning circles and simultaneous contrast on his website. www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html

In addition to the above magazine and website, you can find more information on vision and perception in the book Why We See What We Do by Dale Purves and R. Z Beau Lotto, 2003.

There are three relevant color sections:
• The Causes of Color
• Color Vision and Art
• Pigments through the Ages

The Causes of Color reveals that all the colors in the universe originate from fifteen fundamental physical causes. The common examples that we think of include fire and artificial light bulbs or incandescence. Others that require more study include explanations for the aurora, for neon, and the color of water. Then there is something called "ligand-field-effect", which gives us one of our favorite colors -- turquoise. Ligand is the Latin word for "tie". Simply, this is the chemical bond between a host crystal and an impurity. The chemical make-up of the impurity determines what part of the visible spectrum is absorbed. Did you know that it is impurities that give us the color in rubies and emeralds? The ruby is a regular crystal of corundum containing chromium as an impurity. The emerald is a regular crystal of beryl also containing chromium as an impurity. Diamonds are colorless, because their crystal structure is so tight, they are incapable of absorbing visible light. There are no spaces for impurities that allow the selective absorption of light to create a color. Other interesting causes of color include refraction, scattering, interference, iridescence, and diffraction.

If you prefer the art of color, rather than the science of color, then Color Vision and Art will be of interest to you. Play with simultaneous contrast exercises and then learn about the use of contrast through a study of the history of art and cultural textiles. Slider bars allow for you to experiment with different levels of contrast to interpret the results.

Finally, if you enjoy painting, then the Pigments through the Ages will give you an overview of pigments and allow you to explore your favorite color. For example, red is translated into other languages as well as discussed in terms of symbolism, effect, and power. You can learn the history of red pigments, such as vermilion, alizarine, or red ochre.

At the end of each section there is a bibliography for more study.

One of the most popular photographers found at www.PBase.com, a photo sharing website, is Anna Pagnacco  from Italy. Comments from viewers of her work include:
• “gorgeous color”
• “great compositional eye”
• “rich colours and reflections”
• “creative imagery and unique perspective”
• “amazing amount of vibrancy”
• “I return to recharge my spirit”

Check out her gallery called "Colors"where her work is colorful and painterly. She captures the landscapes or buildingscapes in reflection. These are studies in environmental color combinations; the analogous blues and greens or the complementary blues and oranges.

In the gallery called "Floral Visions"she presents the organic flow of line through flowers and the subtle color transitions in every hue. If you need more floral color try "Feelings".

If you are not inspired yet, there are pictures of the beautiful people of India, surrounded by their intense fabric colors in "A journey into the soul". Need earth tone inspiration, try "Tuscan Mood".

According to a study completed in 2007 by Firestone Home Products, 8 out of 10 consumers prefer outside entertaining to inside entertaining. Further, most all outside entertaining and activities appear to relate to food and drink. Therefore, outdoor kitchens, fireplaces and entertainment are the main marketing fronts for the summer season.

Go to www.outdoorkitchenconcepts.com for an excellent site on how to create your own custom outdoor kitchen complete with all appliances and accessories. Marketed under the "Calise" brand name, this site offers excellent information on sizes, shapes, finishes, options and equipment. The product appears to be of highest quality and performance.

At www.insideoutlivinginc.com you can find excellent outdoor fireplaces as well as related kitchen information. This site also has some good overall outdoor living details.

A fun site with lots of options to consider is www.fetchasketch.com. The information is in sketch format with a very big offering in categories including kitchens, backyards, pools and spas, waterfalls, etc.

Daslu is an upscale, trendy department store in Brazil with stores in many other countries around the world. While all in Portuguese, the website is easy to find categories of products and specific offerings. Go to www.daslu.com.br  and be sure to view the video on the home page; see the Ralph Lauren offering of men's clothing for colors much different from offerings in North America.

www.walkaboutaustralia.com.au is a site dedicated to Aboriginal art, offering a department store range of items from bowls, plates, jewelry, apparel and art. This is a great place to see both graphic arts and colors from a very unique culture dating back 40,000 years.

The Japanese department store Mitsukoshi can be seen at www.mitsukoshi.jp/nyrw, a section entitled "New York Runway: The Power of Color." It takes a bit of guesswork to travel through this website but the results are most interesting to see the fashion and color from another fashion forward part of the world.

The most fun, entertaining and unique department store site can be found at http://producten.hema.nl, the website for HEMA, a Dutch department store chain with 150 stores in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. This company is owned by a British investment company; the product offerings are wonderfully European.

On another note, check out www.homeaccentstoday.com and see the article "Trend: Hollywood Regency". This offers a nice insight into the revival of a past style showing up in the home furnishing market today.

Take a moment to compare the Consumer Colors from the Montreal Conference as reflected in three of the world's most recognized painters.

www.intermonet.com/colors- Impressionist art is based on the use of color and Monet is perhaps the most significant painter of the era. He wrote: "As for the colors I use, what's so interesting about that? I don't think one could paint better or more brightly with another palette. The most important thing is to know how to use the colors. Their choice is a matter of habit. In short, I use white lead, cadmium yellow, vermilion, madder, cobalt blue, and chrome green. That's all." However, his use of color is exceptional.

www.awyeth.com- Andrew Wyeth painted primarily using water color with great subtlety of grayed and muted colors. Shaded blending is sometimes punctuated with a small burst of high contrast color.

www.artchive.com/artchive/O/okeefe.html- Georgia O'Keefe's work speaks about color and its effects in her use of rich, saturated colors. "O'Keefe used color as an emotion. Through color she would transfer the power and effects of music to canvas."

Enjoy the works of these great artists and their colors as it relates to CMG color directions.

The results of the Conference are now available on the CMG Members’ website. Here you can download the Visual Report Back presentations, the On-site Written Report Backs and the On-site Notations. Just visit www.colormarketing.organd go to “Members” then click on “Color Report Backs and Notations” found on the left. Please note that the Final Written Report Backs, as well as the PMS, Pantone Process Number and CMYK notations will be provided when the Color Cards are ready for distribution later this spring.

Also available for download are the results of the 2008 Asia/Pacific Rim meeting in Jaipur, India. By following the same link listed above, and then clicking on Asia/Pacific Rim Colour Directions, you can download the Visual Report Back Presentation and the Colour and Trend Report Backs. The NCS notations will be available shortly.

Hope to see you all at the CMG Fall International Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, November 7-11, 2008.

Jaipur, popularly known as the Pink City, was founded in 1727 AD by one of the greatest rulers of the Kachhawaha clan, the astronomer King Sawai Jai Singh. The pink color was used at the time of making to create an impression of red sandstone buildings of Mughal cities - and repainted in 1876, during the visit of the Prince of Wales.

Enjoy the beauty and splendor of this magnificent city, filled with many museums, beautiful buildings and incredible history by connecting to these links:

www.ent.ohiou.edu/~kartik/jaipur.html

www.pbase.com/croftcroyne/jaipur

Enjoy!

www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf

March 14, 2008
Color is back in a hot new, and at the same time, old way. COLOR AS FIELD: AMERICAN PAINTING is an art form that began in the 1950's that has re-emerged in all its brilliant glory at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.

COLOR FIELD painting, or as art critic Clement Greenberg referred to as Post-Painterly Abstraction, was the "lighter-than-air abstract style" that had an emphasis on stain painting that is now timely and provocative. This retrospective runs through May 26.

Please click on the document below and also on the NY TIMES ART REVIEW slide show on this exhibition:

Weightless Color, Floating Free

NY Times Slide Review

Also check out the NY Times ART REVIEW write up on the exhibition: Primary Season at the Modern

It is interesting to note that in the review, Color Marketing Group is mentioned: "The most recent works (in the MoMA show) acknowledge that our experience of color is increasingly mediated by corporations and consultancies, like Pantone and the Color Marketing Group."

February 21, 2008
Hotel Design magazine hosted a Designer Roundtable in September and posed these questions to seven designers: “What colors are going to be hot in '08 and '09? What’s the next color palette we’ll see in your designs?”

The consensus was neutral colors. But Robert Polacek, creative director of the Puccini Group in San Francisco noted that there are two distinct trends. One palette incorporates bold uses of black and white, metallics, golds and bronzes. The second trend is the neutral palette. This palette is earthy, rustic, natural. Polacek says there is “a real contradiction taking place.” He said there is a “high-tech, slick look” and a “pull toward the earthiness and natural.” He thinks both palettes will be important. Anita Degen of Degen & Degen Architecture and Design, in Seattle notes the influence of sustainability on colors and says the “juxtaposition of very natural colors with very modern elements is something that’s very appealing now.”

Sustainable or green development is now an integral part of the hotel industry and may be the driving influence on the natural palette. Sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” according to a report issued by the World Commission on Environment and Development. One element of sustainability is the desire to work with the natural environment and not disturb the ecosystem. When nature becomes an element of the building design, natural colors are easily incorporated in the interiors. Of course natural colors vary by location, so the designer’s job is to find the right colors to work with the environment, be it the mesas of New Mexico, the blues and greens of the Smokey Mountains, the soft colors of sand and sea or the steel and concrete colors of an urban setting.

The CMG contract forecast has it covered. It includes lots of neutrals that work well with wood tones, greys that could soften an urban environment, an array of greens to echo the greens in nature, warm golds and reds for the sunny southwest or tropical paradise, muted blue-greys and soft turq, perfect for the shore. Also included are some bolder colors: an energetic red, a vibrant orange, a dynamic deep warm blue, a clean crisp yellow; great as accents, for contrast, or combined with the bold metallics.

To read Hotel Design magazine’s complete report from the Designer Roundtable go to: www.hoteldesignmagazine.com/hoteldesign/Perspectives/Designer-roundtable-Design-talk/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/487452

For more information about green hotel design visit: www.greenlodgingnews.com

Visit the E’Terra Inn, a LEED Gold-Certified Hotel and dream of your next getaway at: www.eterra.name/index.shtml

The psychology of color has long been studied. In 1810 Goethe wrote The Theory of Colours. He realized the importance of color and theorized that perception was universal and objective. Max Luscher, in 1947, realized that color could reveal much about personality. He created a color test used by psychiatrists and psychologists. There have since been many theories and studies about the psychological effects of color. A study by researchers at the University of Rochester, published in the February 2007 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, found that a flash of red light impaired intellectual performance during test-taking. The research found that red is associated with how errors are marked on school papers and thus the flash of red was associated with failures and mistakes.

Psychological studies of color are sometimes disputed because the impact of various factors such as culture, age or gender has not been isolated. It is clear that colors often have different meanings or connotations in different cultures. Red, for example is traditionally worn by brides in China but has been banned from clothing stores in Israel. It is also evident that colors can have both positive and negative associations within a culture. In our culture red is associated with love: red valentines and red roses and also with alarm: flashing red lights and code red.

It is clear that color can impact our mood and our emotions. Some of the influence may be universal, some cultural, but certainly there is also an individual reaction to color.

Read more about Color Symbolism at the Color Matters website: www.colormatters.com/brain.html

Read more about the Color Red at the Sensational Color website: www.sensationalcolor.com

To learn how to use the color red in Feng Shui visit: www.fengshui.about.com

And lastly, to read about the history and meaning of red roses visit the ProFlowers website at www.proflowers.com. While you’re there buy some roses for your sweetheart

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of Pantone, Inc. and a member of CMG, is quoted in Home Textiles Today as saying during her Las Vegas Market presentation, "In real estate it’s all about location, location. In color it’s context, context."

There is no wrong color, only color in the wrong context. A black, white and silver room, may be dramatic, but it is the vase of magenta tulips, though small in size, that complete the drama. Olive Drab may seem boring, but it may be just the right color to calm down a tropical palette of Caribbean Blue and Bird of Paradise Orange.

Read Eiseman’s description of the Pantone 2008 home furnishings forecastdelivered in Las Vegas.

Visit the Pantone / Color Think Tankfor a good visual on how colors affect each other in unusual ways.

His book, “Thinking for a Living: Creating Ideas That Revitalize Your Business, Career, and Life†has just been issued in paperback from the 2005 hardback release.

A few quotes from one such review: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/26/brighthouse.html. Reiman also recommends doing something new every day. "Instead of telling people to grow up, I tell them to grow down," he says. "All kids, when asked to sing or dance, will do it. But when I ask groups of people in their forties and fifties, 'Will anyone get up and dance?' they all dive under the table. If you want to be creative, you've got to be able to dance."

When it comes to creativity, Joey Reiman believes that slower is better. Why? "Because of technology and globalization, everyone has been speeding up," he says. "That's fine for everyday problems. But high speeds don't help you crack big problems. For that, you need a deliberate thinking process. It's not about doing things faster -- it's about doing them better. And in this case, 'better' means 'slower.'

Also, another to consider is Michael Michalko and his book "Cracking Creativity" that can be a companion piece to Reiman's book. www.creativethinking.net

Also of note is Bill McKibben, a trend-watcher or trend-maker?! Recently well received for his “The Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future†that addresses what the author sees as short-comings of the growth economy and envisions a transition to more local-scale enterprise. He is an environmentalist and culture critic. For years he has written on climate change, first in 1989! And in an experiment, he collected everything that came across the 100 channels of cable TV for a single day, spent a year watching the 2,400 hours of videotape, and then compared it to a day spent on the mountaintop, exploring the unmediated man; this in 1992. He has a full schedule for lecturing across the country and well worth attending.

www.billmckibben.com

As we inquire more insight on global fashion trends, these findings on African and Indian fashions are inspiring.
www.afromix.org/html/societe/mode/index.en.html
www.langmead.com/zfw/ 

This website is beyond merely a shopping website for Indian fashion, it supports women's issues and needs while attempting to build a community of those they serve and addressing eco-friendly means as well.
www.seasonsindia.com 

I have not heard much on American “street fashion” recently, but in taking note of events that appear to have gained attention for what’s hot in street culture, I refer to:
www.legendsofstyle.net/site/index.php

Design Observer:
Andrew Blauvelt: Design’s Ethnographic Turn

The New Yorker:
What Else is New? How uses, not innovations, drive human technology

Brandchannel:
The Search for Soul

Design Observer -- Writings on Design and Culture

Cool Hunting

Core77 -- Industrial Design Supersite

Futurism & The Age of Machinery

Flower Power
Smithsonian's Hirchhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Sironi’s Reputation Grows with New Show
Parma's Magnani Rocca Foundation

Modernism touched all phases of life
Corcoran Gallery of Art in Wachington, D.C.

Mangnelli. La magia del colore
Fonte d'Abisso Arte, 2006

Background:
The Intoxicated Five - Time Magazine, 1961

Futurism & The Age of Machinery

It's the place where creativity and technology meet - The Boston Globe