brightwater03
October 26th, 2007, 03:45 PM
I’ve added three links to color predictions for 2008 that may be useful to artists planning to approach the lucrative Interior Design / Decorative Art Market in 2008. Blues seem to be ascending the color ladder and the earth tones descending.
That doesn’t mean there will be a dramatic overnight shift and artists should move art with browns and beiges into the “woofer” portfolio and assume there won’t still be strong sales opportunities. Color trends in furnishings don’t change as rapidly as they do in women’s fashions. Earth tones, because they are restful and familiar, bring a touch of the outdoors inside. They have always been popular choices for many homeowners when they lay out dollars to decorate a room they know they will be living in for some time.
High end, cutting edge, interior designers with clients who want to be trend setters will be the first on board with new colors and daring combinations. The rest of us move a bit more slowly until the “first wave” becomes the tide. I remember well the days when charcoal and pink were “hot,” and a time when it was almost impossible to buy kitchen appliances unless they were avocado and gold. For a while peach and seafoam, here in Florida, were the key to sales. There was a mauve period for interior designers that lasted so long it made Picasso’s blue period seem like a flicker. Jewel tones and teal were trends a few years back.
Artists who were aware and adaptable profited. Those who thought anything that matched a sofa couldn’t be “fine art” tightened their belts until an art trend caught up with the colors they were using.
I just had a delightful conversation with a local artist as she worked on a one hundred foot long circus mural here in Venice (long the home to Ringling Brothers) and she related how an interested on-looker had commented something to the effect, “I like your work, but what I need isn’t anything like this - I don’t suppose you could do such-and-such?” Frances Smith’s answer was one I’d recommend to every painter: “Of course I can, I’M AN ARTIST.”
Fashion Trendsetter.com Color trends for 2008:
http://interiordec.about.com/od/choosingcolor/ig/Color-Trends-2008/index.htm
Pantone color predictions for 2008:
http://www.stylechicago.com/Category.asp?ID=11402#pantone
About.com Interior Decorating Color predictions for 2008:
http://interiordec.about.com/od/choosingcolor/ig/Color-Trends-2008/index.htm
My first color vocabulary, as a child, was based on the rainbow and the acronym: Roy G. Biv -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
When I attended art school, my vocabulary shifted to the paint colors I used to create art such as Cadmium Red, Yellow and Orange, Viridian, Terre Verte, Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine, Turquoise, Cobalt Violet, Magenta and Rose Madder and all the earth tones, the Siennas and Umbers.
Then on to teach Art in the Baltimore Public Schools where we used the Munsell Color Wheel: Red, Yellow-red, Yellow, Green, Blue-green, Blue, Blue-purple, Purple, Red-purple.
Another career change into advertising and my color vocabulary changed again using Pantone and PMS color designations to guide the printers reproducing our brochures and ads.
When I finally ended up spending twenty plus years as an art rep calling on interior designers, decorators and architects, my color world went spinning out of control, at least at first.
These people didn’t talk or think in terms of artist’s paint colors I recognized or Munsell’s Hue, Value and Chroma. God forbid I should ask which Pantone color they wanted to match to their sofa fabric.
They wanted Camel, Oyster, Seafoam, Biscuit, Robin’s Egg, Beige, Taupe, Teal, Mauve, Puce, Plum, Avocado, Canary -- all manner of bird, beast, fruit or vegetable! At first, I resisted, but quickly realized I’d better learn if I wanted to sell art.
In short order, I discovered that ALL women speak this strange language naturally. And women make most of the decisions about what art goes into their homes. They don’t have to be taught. Once I got rid of the “we never did it that way before” mental roadblock, it made more sense and was more accurate in day-to-day communication than anything I had used before.
As I met and worked with interior designers, I realized the successful ones were true artists in their chosen field with a sense of style and color that could accommodate nuances from subtle, to adventurous, to fantastic and that they could bring off combinations of color I’d never even considered when I was producing art. They keep abreast of what is “hot” and “what is not” -- the best of them anticipate color trends before they “happen” and lead others into new ways of seeing.
The real professionals, when approached by a potential client who says: “I don’t really like those “new” colors. I don’t suppose you could do something for me with some nice browns and beiges?” will answer: “Of course I can, I’M AN INTERIOR DESIGNER!”
Dick Harrison
www.salestipsforartists.com
That doesn’t mean there will be a dramatic overnight shift and artists should move art with browns and beiges into the “woofer” portfolio and assume there won’t still be strong sales opportunities. Color trends in furnishings don’t change as rapidly as they do in women’s fashions. Earth tones, because they are restful and familiar, bring a touch of the outdoors inside. They have always been popular choices for many homeowners when they lay out dollars to decorate a room they know they will be living in for some time.
High end, cutting edge, interior designers with clients who want to be trend setters will be the first on board with new colors and daring combinations. The rest of us move a bit more slowly until the “first wave” becomes the tide. I remember well the days when charcoal and pink were “hot,” and a time when it was almost impossible to buy kitchen appliances unless they were avocado and gold. For a while peach and seafoam, here in Florida, were the key to sales. There was a mauve period for interior designers that lasted so long it made Picasso’s blue period seem like a flicker. Jewel tones and teal were trends a few years back.
Artists who were aware and adaptable profited. Those who thought anything that matched a sofa couldn’t be “fine art” tightened their belts until an art trend caught up with the colors they were using.
I just had a delightful conversation with a local artist as she worked on a one hundred foot long circus mural here in Venice (long the home to Ringling Brothers) and she related how an interested on-looker had commented something to the effect, “I like your work, but what I need isn’t anything like this - I don’t suppose you could do such-and-such?” Frances Smith’s answer was one I’d recommend to every painter: “Of course I can, I’M AN ARTIST.”
Fashion Trendsetter.com Color trends for 2008:
http://interiordec.about.com/od/choosingcolor/ig/Color-Trends-2008/index.htm
Pantone color predictions for 2008:
http://www.stylechicago.com/Category.asp?ID=11402#pantone
About.com Interior Decorating Color predictions for 2008:
http://interiordec.about.com/od/choosingcolor/ig/Color-Trends-2008/index.htm
My first color vocabulary, as a child, was based on the rainbow and the acronym: Roy G. Biv -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
When I attended art school, my vocabulary shifted to the paint colors I used to create art such as Cadmium Red, Yellow and Orange, Viridian, Terre Verte, Cerulean, Cobalt and Ultramarine, Turquoise, Cobalt Violet, Magenta and Rose Madder and all the earth tones, the Siennas and Umbers.
Then on to teach Art in the Baltimore Public Schools where we used the Munsell Color Wheel: Red, Yellow-red, Yellow, Green, Blue-green, Blue, Blue-purple, Purple, Red-purple.
Another career change into advertising and my color vocabulary changed again using Pantone and PMS color designations to guide the printers reproducing our brochures and ads.
When I finally ended up spending twenty plus years as an art rep calling on interior designers, decorators and architects, my color world went spinning out of control, at least at first.
These people didn’t talk or think in terms of artist’s paint colors I recognized or Munsell’s Hue, Value and Chroma. God forbid I should ask which Pantone color they wanted to match to their sofa fabric.
They wanted Camel, Oyster, Seafoam, Biscuit, Robin’s Egg, Beige, Taupe, Teal, Mauve, Puce, Plum, Avocado, Canary -- all manner of bird, beast, fruit or vegetable! At first, I resisted, but quickly realized I’d better learn if I wanted to sell art.
In short order, I discovered that ALL women speak this strange language naturally. And women make most of the decisions about what art goes into their homes. They don’t have to be taught. Once I got rid of the “we never did it that way before” mental roadblock, it made more sense and was more accurate in day-to-day communication than anything I had used before.
As I met and worked with interior designers, I realized the successful ones were true artists in their chosen field with a sense of style and color that could accommodate nuances from subtle, to adventurous, to fantastic and that they could bring off combinations of color I’d never even considered when I was producing art. They keep abreast of what is “hot” and “what is not” -- the best of them anticipate color trends before they “happen” and lead others into new ways of seeing.
The real professionals, when approached by a potential client who says: “I don’t really like those “new” colors. I don’t suppose you could do something for me with some nice browns and beiges?” will answer: “Of course I can, I’M AN INTERIOR DESIGNER!”
Dick Harrison
www.salestipsforartists.com