Color in Difficult Times

The Human-Color Interaction series of International Roundtables, jointly curated by Color Marketing Group® and NIFT VisioNxt, continues with a new and urgent inquiry.

A select group of internationally recognized voices in color, design, and materials will come together to explore what happens to color when the world is under pressure.

Across history, moments of disruption have reshaped societies and the way color is perceived, expressed, and applied. Whether in times of conflict, environmental crisis, economic meltdowns or collective uncertainty, color shifts. It withdraws, intensifies, adapts, or resists.

This International Roundtable will examine how difficult conditions influence color choices across industries and cultures, and how color becomes a response to fear, resilience, identity, and survival.

The discussion will move beyond aesthetics to uncover how color operates as both a reflection of human experience and a tool for emotional navigation in times of instability.

Bringing together perspectives from the Global North, the Global South and the in-between, this session invites a deeper understanding of color not as decoration, but as a signal of how we endure, adapt, and move forward.