FEATURE

COLOR MARKETING GROUP

Color Marketing Group (CMG), founded in 1962 and based in Alexandria VA, is an international, not-for-profit association of 1,300 color designers. Color designers are professionals who enhance the function, salability and/or quality of a product through their knowledge and appropriate application of color. CMG members forecast color directions one to three years in advance for all industries, manufactured products and services. These consumer/residential and contract/commercial products include transportation, visual communications, technology, home, consumer goods, juvenile products, fashion and action/recreation.

2006 CONSUMER COLOR DIRECTIONS
Colors for 2006 will be warmer, clearer and brighter, according to the color designers at Color Marketing Group. Reddened oranges will replace coppery hues; yellows will gain importance; blues will dramatically recede; and complex neutrals will add sophistication and luxury to the 2006 consumer color palette.

The color professionals at CMG identified these six key influences driving the 2006 color directions:

1. Techno-Organic Balance
   Consumers want to find a balance in their lives between the influences of nature and the pace of technological advance. They order their lives and base purchase decisions on this new, somewhat surreal balance.

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2. Breathing Space
   Consumers want fulfilled and rewarding lives, despite the demands of work and society. To this end, they seek serenity and calm in a space that is insulated from common daily stresses and emerging threats to safety, both in public and private.

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3. Heritage with Heart
   However clearly consumers remember the past, they sense a need to reconnect with it. Hope and optimism filter memories of past events, ensuring that this nostalgic journey is warm and comforting. The focus is on positive times; struggles are forgotten.

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4. Hybrid
   The synthesis of cultural norms pervades the environment. Society has evolved beyond fusion in foods, fashion and design. Now, hybrid households and communities are entering the mainstream. The move to hybridization occurs in parallel with geopolitical and economic events and is a product of the proliferation of global unification in communications, transportation, manufacturing and services. Although hybridization is generally accepted by consumers, it offers a sharp contract to the comfort of the predictable past.

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5. Über Luxury
   As extravagance becomes accessible to the masses, there is a need to identify icons or symbols that convey a new level of status and sophistication. In response, icons of sophisticated craftsmanship and rare materials with high polish and burnished finishes will emerge. In fashion, über Luxury takes on a classic feminine style that drives decision-making and brings power to women. In the home, über Luxury is defined a masculine, clean simple and elegant.

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6. Color Depth
   Consumers seek bold colors and luminous materials that add glow and fluidity in product executions. Visually stimulating chromatic textures yield high - energy interest and excitement.

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