In the design world, color plays a crucial role in capturing attention, evoking emotions, and creating unforgettable experiences. For the past month, all the major paint brands have been announced their "color of the year". Is this something that impacts you directly? Should you even care? 

If you're about to re-paint the living room, or preparing to sell or build a new home, these trends could matter. This years selections are the beginning significant shifts that will redefine how we perceive and interact with our surroundings. 

Brands and manufacturers are churning out product on a monthly basis. I'm speaking mainly about home decor and the apparel/footwear world. To ensure their products resonate, they use the idea of collections and storytelling to explain and entice us to buy. Part of that process is making coordinated decisions on colors and materials way in advance. 

Color and material trends are interwoven, though. You can only order raw goods to produce your product if you tell them what color to make it. That also means figuring out how to dye all the fabrics you want to use together. To tell a story at retail, color consistency is imperative. Don't you want the mesh on your new Pegasus running shoes to match the trim of your new running shorts? Getting factories and manufacturers of different materials to achieve a brand's color standard is a world in and of itself! But I digress.

The point is that brands of all types must commit to decisions on material and color 2+ years out to ensure enough production time to manufacture the raw goods before pen is put to paper to design. To do that well, enter Trend Services. Big brands rely on-trend services that do nothing but predict trends. These services usually specify their big bets by industry, apparel, footwear, interiors, building materials, you name it! It doesn't mean there isn't overlap, but they usually aren't as apparent to the consumer.

Trend services consider world events, consumer behavior changes, or trends and generally view the world through the lens of designers. Designers of all industries are tasked with creating the items they hope we will want to buy. Designers are also the arbiters of taste. We ultimately buy into the promise of inserting anything! which they create. 

When it comes to paint colors, the major paint brands can wait and choose their colors much closer to the date of application. They are just choosing a die mixture for whatever base paint they make. So they can wait and watch what other big industries are doing. They, in essence, get a massive advantage because they can see what patterns are emerging from the brands that rely on-trend services. 

So essentially the shift has already been made. Brands decided color directions two-ish years ago and now the paint brands are essentially falling in line. They are a reflection of what we are already starting to see at retail.

The white-out of the last 30 years and the grey-washing has taken precedence in most interiors for decades. However, 2014 was the first time we saw white land on the color of the year roster. White is technically classic in most applications, but the ultra-modern, almost sterile look doesn't feel the same as it used to. This new modernist look started at the turn of the 21st century, when significant technological advances, such as cell phones and smart home gadgets, became front and center. A lot has shifted since then.

After the pandemic, there's been a collective realization that open living and harsh, bright tones can be hard to live with on a 24/7, day-to-day basis. Fully shifting consumers off of white and grey will still take some time. New home builders and house flippers are still using a color wash of white and grey and are usually the last to change. But the taste-makers and trend services have been warming us up for a significant change.

The last decade has brought much political change all over the globe, a meteoric rise in communication habits via social media, and, let's not forget, the impact of the pandemic. There is a lot to take in, and it all takes its toll. Our human adaptability is slower than we'd like to think.

Most major markets are reacting to the changes in shopping habits since the pandemic. The surge of online shopping and our expectations for excellent customer service, fast delivery, and returns have been about speed. Social media habits have left us with the attention span of a fly. I haven't touched on the tsunami of AI offers we must wade through. However, this demand for immediacy is backfiring on us, and I am not surprised to see dark and moody colors ground the 2025 predictions. 

There is a rising Pinterest trend for Gloomy-Glam or Moody-Academia, which is full of rich, dark tones with images of leather club chairs, old, dark vintage libraries, and color-washed country club decor. These all express this hunger for a slower life pace, and dark and moody colors elicit contemplation. 

Overall, most residential interior and home goods brands are seeing a shift to darker, moody, and earthy tones. So gone is the bright white kitchen and hopefully soon, the builder-greige.

You're probably wondering, what about Farrow and Ball and Sherwin-Williams? They both did things a little differently this year, both releasing collections of colors. 

Farrow and Ball added 11 new colors to their palette. Notably, none of them align with the warm berry raisin tones, although they are all muted traditional, which has always been their hallmark. So, essentially, almost any color in their full offering would work for 2025.

Sherwin-Williams launched 9 separate color capsules, each with a central color, but including complimentary hues with it. This is a great way to consider many different design styles. I actually really like this approach and find it really easy to navigate. They also played in a similar muted zone with browns and earthy ochres. but generally lighter than any of the selections above. So, no matter your design style or the architectural era of your space, you have options.

The next big announcement is Pantone's color of the year, which is expected in early December. Since Pantone is one of the trend services that helps brands decide on color, I expect their take to be similar but perhaps more bold. 

In my next post, I'll discuss how Color of the Year predictions impact our work at Casey Grace Studios.