Inaugural CMG Chattanooga ChromaZone a Great Success
Color Marketing Group launched their color forecasting process for 2021 on March 13 at the inaugural Chattanooga ChromaZone® Workshop. The Workshop, hosted by Techmer PM, was held in conjunction with Techmer’s 20th Fibertech Conference. 17 ChromaZone participants came with their 2021+ color trend research and color directions that they predict will emerge on the market in the next two years.
— Guest Blogger, Robert Grace
Multi-Industry Attendees
Participants representing companies such as Eckart America, Mohawk Industries, Panolam Surface Systems, Sherwin-Williams, Spradling International, Tarkett, Techmer PM, and Omnova Solutions Inc., presented their color trend predictions based on societal trends. The balance of the day involved breakout discussions designed to group the driving factors into three major color stories driving color directions, and then debate and narrow down the list to a total of 16 named colors and a single key color.
CMG’s Process
CMG Conferences and ChromaZone color forecasting workshops are held annually in venues ranging from Cleveland and Chicago, to Shanghai and Milan, as well as Montreal and Toronto. This global process eventually leads to a consensus forecast of 64 color directions comprising 16 colors from the 4 regions of North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The final result – the famed 2021+ World Color Forecast™ – is revealed at CMG’s annual International Summit, to be held this year in Tucson AZ, November 15th to 17th. Workshop Facilitator, and CMG’s VP Communications & PR, Sandy Sampson of Simple Modern Style explained, “CMG’s Color Forecasts are hugely influential across many spectrums, ranging from consumer goods and automobiles to fashion and sportswear.”
Celebrating the Interaction of Color and Materials
Color excites, calms, brands, and sells. There is no underestimating the important role that color plays when it comes to consumer products, retail sales, and brand identity. But creating and reproducing the right colors in a variety of substrates and materials offers its own set of challenges. Materials design firms such as Techmer PM need to fit the desired product’s demanding specifications with the designers’ intentions. That is the reason Techmer PM has decided both to partner with Color Marketing Group, and to focus on communicating in color, from design inspiration to final product materials, in the form of TechmerVision 2.0, a recently upgraded, web-based digital color software system.
A 58-year-old, not-for-profit, international association of color design professionals, CMG has color, material and finish (CMF) designers within its membership, and getting the right color in materials is at the heart of their challenge. Rather than waiting until the end of the design process and being forced to settle for a color, it is important for materials design companies to be aware of trending colors and finishes early on.
Color Exploration
At Fibertech 2019, on the day following the ChromaZone workshop, Techmer’s team presented “Communicating in Color: TechmerVision 2.0.” They shared insights on both the market and on Techmer’s updated software program, which allows designers to explore color and prototype rapidly and accurately.
Techmer PM is a member-partner of Color Marketing Group to facilitate color exploration in conjunction with CMG Color Alerts™.
Once the final product colors are selected and prototyped within TechmerVision, the color tool accurately communicates data to fabricate physical color samples, offering the advantage of cost and time savings to product developers. (To keep abreast of new releases of TechmerVision, color explorations and information, sign up at: www.techmerpm.com/techmervision.)
TechmerVision “greatly accelerates the color exploration and selection process, via the opportunity to do various iterations quickly, early in the design process and, if desired, remotely,” noted Techmer VP David Turner.
CMG’s members represent a broad spectrum of designers, marketers, color scientists, consultants, educators and artists and their goal is to “unleash the power of color by leveraging collective experience and knowledge.” Techmer PM is pleased to be partnering with this knowledge base.
