Color Vernacular

Trend Influence

Forced indoors, we come to terms with the ease and comfort of our homes. The safety of being able to shut the door and know that we can be calm and quiet reflects a shift from the outer to the inner worlds, and translates visually into the colours and emotions associated with being cocooned. The palette that follows is soft, unassuming and colours blend harmoniously; light pinks, minty greens, dusty purples and misty greys. See this palette alongside design trends such as round, non-threatening furniture, homewares featuring engineered wood, undulating patterns in textiles, and soft-focus gradients used in fashion as well as branding.

Color Description

The result of the development is a versatile pink with quiet warmth and subtleness that doesn’t overpower. A soft mid pink with a yellow undertone.

Emotion and Feeling

Representing youth, romance, tenderness and domesticity, pink makes you feel calm. It’s inherently sweet, cute and charming, but also very safe.

Trend influence 

As much of the world has experienced the paradigm shift toward living with and managing risk, we are now welcomed back into a world where we can leave our houses and fall back into the regular freedoms of our former lives. There is a lost generation of who will have spent two of their formative adult lives with little or no access to culture, clubs, galleries and restaurants. There is an am impetus to break free and indulge in a fatalistic night of decadence, making up for lost times; red wine, rich food, friendship with strangers, speakeasy bars and underground clubbing. It feels exciting but also dangerous. Visually, this translates into a dark, dreamlike aesthetic, driving a palette of dramatic and theatrical colours. Statement, shadowed reds make you feel passionate and energized, conveying an expression of a rejection of risk. We see this colour palette alongside furniture taking on anthropomorphic-like qualities, fashion that favours expression over utility combined with statement, symbol-laden jewellery.

Colour description 

Emotion/Feeling

Currant holds strong connotations to love, desire and seduction, while on the other hand evoking feelings of danger, anger and violence. In either interpretation, this tone conjures a sense of energy and instantly grabs attention, thanks to its high visibility.

Trend influence

After long periods of shutdown, we see ourselves yearning for something unapologetically pretty, romantic and fairy tale-esque; a blend of idyll naturalism with a heavy dose of fantasy. Think romanticized views of the countryside with quaint cottages, summer picnics and blue skies. This represents an escapism from the dark and compact world of highly urban communities, the occupants of which this trend highly resonates with. Bucolic prettiness and the simple, pastoral lifestyle that follows feels calming and reassuring. Designers from across the board have been tapping into this trend. In fashion, we’re seeing this in the form of collections awash with ruffles, bow-tied bodices and pretty, micro-print floral textiles, as well as a focus on domestic handicrafts in the homewares category. Driving a colour palette of optimistic fantasy; the fuchsias and honeycombs of one half distracts while the blues and greens reassure.

Colour description

Sea salt is a clean pastel blue with a red and white undertone, reminiscent of a clear sky or calm waters.

Emotion/Feeling Blue calls to mind feelings of calmness or serenity. It is often described as peaceful, tranquil, secure and orderly. It’s also often seen as a sign of stability and reliability.

Trend influence

Propelled by the pandemic, we are lured by the idea of a self-sufficient, uncomplicated lifestyle free from excessive possessions and consumption. Away from the stresses of urban living, we transport ourselves to the remote coastal life in all its untouched beauty. Instead of battling against nature and its hostility, we learn to live in sync with it, using the natural cycles of the environment to our advantage. We resurge with optimism and resilience as we find ourselves thriving in the toughest of environments, unlocking a newfound appreciation of the natural world and the local communities that have helped us to live here.

The aesthetic that follows is rugged but paired back; a nod to the untouched, remote landscape. Colors are muted from the fading effects of the sun, salt, and sea. Bleached and weather worn, this gives the colors within this palette a sense of harmony. Designs are beautifully simple and functional, pairing well with textures drawn from natural fibers and materials like string, mesh, rope, galvanised steel and felted wool. We also see this design trend in the form of retro sea-inspired kitchenware, homewares and jewellery.

Color description

Umber is a red brown with a slightly blue cast, giving it a subtle warmth. As a washed out, muted tone, Umber is a highly neutral and functional color, pairing well with a mix of palettes.

Emotion/feeling

Representing resilience, simplicity and neutrality, Umber makes us feel calm and at peace with our surroundings.

Trend influence

With the comfort of the indoors also comes routine and monotony. Unable to indulge in the usual pleasures of the outside world, we look internally for a distraction. Escapism takes the form of imagination and daydreaming. This drives a dreamlike aesthetic that evokes youthful, nostalgic and pastel tones. Palettes are smooth, solid and protective with an illusory quality. Shaded greens like ‘Sencha’ are used as nuanced neutrals, harmonizing with warm browns, cool greys and soft corals to create a quiet and ethereal palette. We see this design trend influencing fashion that favours comfort, such as loungewear, activewear and outdoor wear; reimagined in fresh, neutral palettes. Homewares and furniture also take on more illusory forms with soft curves and dreamy gradient finishes.

Color description 

A mid tone desaturated green with a yellow undertone, Sencha is fresh and neutral. Descriptively close to muted mint green, Sencha provides a gentle contrast when paired with beiges and greys.

Emotion/feeling 

The greying green makes for an effortlessly calming interior environment with its soft biophilic influence. Sencha feels makes us feel cleansed, focused and content.

Trend influence

Forced inside for long periods of time, we soon fall into the comfort and beguiling safety of working from home. The outside world and all its risks and uncertainties makes the inside world feel conversely calming and reassuring. In terms of visual drivers, there’s a strong neutral element here. The security of shutting the door and knowing you are safe, comfortable and quiet will continue to be desirable. Hence, a continued craving for ‘cocooning’ informs this aesthetic.

Naturally, we see this pastel, ethereal-style palette prominent in residential settings, alongside design trends including frosted finishes, opaque glassware, undulating patterns, and objects with an illusory quality. Furniture takes on a defined softness, eschewing sharp angles for a pleasing roundness. Alongside Walnut, this aesthetic movement unifies peaches, purple greys, clay and minty greens to create a soft, domestic palette.

Color description 

A dark, desaturated warm brown, Walnut is tonally close to a deep taupe, making it a grounding neutral.

Emotion/feeling 

This natural hue has a peaceful, refined quality, making it feel homely and welcome. With this comes a sense of feeling calm and cocooned. A peaceful, neutral palette that is consciously unchallenging yet quietly uplifting.

Trend influence

Escapism as an antidote to being locked inside for long periods throughout the pandemic is a recurring theme in our color stories. In this particular narrative, a picture-perfect view of rural, countryside living has us exploring our engagement with nature in a much more fantastical but artificial sense; cute cottages, fresh hay, floral gardens and blue skies. A longing for something unapologetically pretty and romantic drives an other-worldly, filmic quality to this aesthetic, taking the form of a highly-stylized, traditional agrarian bliss.

This informs a bucolic palette where warm ‘Turmeric’ provides a playful contrast with exaggerated, agrarian hues ‘Wasabi’ and ‘Peppercorn’, balanced with muted blue ‘Sea Salt’.

In this idealized country experience we see fashion awash with puffy sleeves, bow-tied bodices and ruffled necklines distinguished with embroidery and cross-stitch. A sense of domestic handicraft influences accessories, favoring materials like raffia, and we see a rise in porcelain with floral microprints in homewares.

Color description 

Turmeric is a shaded yellow with flecks of red. The careful combination of dominant yarn colours gives it a crafted, heathered look. Prevailing hues like Turmeric evidence an established color trend toward warmer yellows.

Emotion/feeling 

As a warm yellow, Turmeric is confident, but offers a whimsical quality with its nuanced blend of orange and red threads. The mood is playful and eschews slick sophistication, embracing an unselfconscious joy in fantasy.

Trend influence

The beguiling safety of the home has supported a seismic shift toward remote working. A costly and time-consuming commute paired with the stress and madness of the outer world can make staying at home a hard habit to break.

At the cross section between the traditional comfort of the home and the new functions it now requires to support productivity, this story charts the exponential growth of the home office. Visually, there’s a strong neutral element to ‘Almond’, recognising that the abundance of colors and textures of the outside world may seem dissonant and exhausting. Instead, we look to surround ourselves with things that are comforting to the touch and soothing to the eye.

Fashion sees a shift from outer to inner worlds, favouring athleisure and sleepwear over traditional corporate clothing. Not only this, but we will begin seeking comfort in technology, demanding electronics and appliances that blend into the décor of our homes and provide ambience and tactility. This will take form in smooth, illusory materials like resin and glass, with opaque, opalescent finishes. Naturally, this is a great residential palette and will be applicable across small accessories, homewares, bed linen, and skincare packaging.

Color description 

‘Almond’ is a warm, off-white, erring on a dusty, purpling-grey. Sitting between our ‘White’ and ‘Ivory’, these neutrals are clear and uplifting, reminiscent of early morning sunlight. Almond pairs well with our clay-colored ‘Peach’ and cleansing ‘Sencha’ for a homely, light-filled palette.

Emotion/feeling 

The quiet and supportive qualities of the home are reflected in ‘Almond’, making it a peaceful, natural hue. This color evokes a homely, welcoming environment to create a calming mood.

Trend influence

Now that work can be accessed remotely, more people are considering different ways of life, removed from the stresses of urban living. The lure of a simple life, uncomplicated by excess possessions and in sync with nature rather than battling against it, has never been stronger. This notion is no more observable than in far away, coastal towns, where localism, shared knowledge and folklore prevails. The aesthetic that follows is uncompromisingly rugged, thanks to harsh weather and unforgiving seas, yet there is a strong undertone of optimism and hope.

Visually there is a nod to colors that were once bold and rich, now weather-worn to create a unity across the palette; the murky ocean blue of ‘Granite’, the faded red of fishing nets and ever-changing stormy skies. A nautical theme is inarguable.

This story is an obvious outlet for the use of locally sourced materials including leather, shells, linen, canvas and wool, as well as self-sufficient craft techniques like knotting, weaving and stitching. Homage is paid to seafaring heritage, both cultural and culinary, with cosmetics featuring coastal ingredients like algae, salt crystals, fish oil and sea kale.

In fashion, this utility-driven theme takes the form in sustainable clothing made from hardy fabrics such as heavy rubber boots, chunky knits, thick tweed trousers and sun-bleached linen. Function meets paired pack, beautiful simplicity.

Color description 

‘Granite’ is a mid-tone stormy blue-grey with a red undertone, taking it almost into an indigo hue. Pair our versatile ‘Granite’ with our crimson ‘Lipstick Red’ for a compatible contrast, or our off-white ‘Almond’ for a complementary palette.

Emotion/feeling 

The deep blue-red-grey of ‘Granite’ sets a rugged, maritime mood. Rather than escalating fear, succumbing to the forces of nature is overpoweringly calming and gives us a sense of stoic resilience.