FX Magazine - Design, Business and Society

In association with Dulux Trade

3 July, 2009

Around a table enticingly covered in sweets and cakes of every hue of the rainbow, a panel of the great and good sat down to kick around the issue of colour at the latest FX design seminar.

The wide-ranging debate brought many issues to the fore, such as the fact that most see colour as a science and believe it has a psychological impact, yet the research to back that up is pretty scarce. Our attitudes to colour, cultural factors and where colour trends come from, were also probed over the space of an hour.

FX editor Theresa Dowling kicked off the session by pointing out how colour can date an era. Rather than citing the brownand orange Seventies as an example, she went much further back, to Victorian times and the colour purple. ‘In the 1850s, William Perkin, a chemist trying to find an antidote to malaria, accidentally discovered the first synthetic purple dye,’ she said. ‘People went mad for it, and it became the most fashionable colour for clothes (there’s a purple crinoline dress at the V&A) and then for interiors. It had radical implications for all interior design from then on.’

This relationship between colour use and fashion is still strong today, according to Nicki Barton, head of colour marketing at Dulux Trade. ‘A lot of what we see when we are doing trend work and predicting colours is influenced by the fashion industry – what you’re wearing and what you’re using in day-to-day areas, and that translates into commercial and domestic interiors,’ she said. ‘So that experience of colour being discovered and used in clothes, then extensively in furnishing and the home in the 19th century, is still happening today. What you’ll find is people are more comfortable using colour, living with colour and visiting an environment with colour when they are seeing those colours in other areas that they are much more familiar with.’

While Dowling made the point that darker colours had been the order of the day in Victorian times because of their ability to mask coal dust, Barton added that ‘heritage’ colours were also strong because of the quality of the lighting in those times.

The role that light plays in colour use was touched on many times during the debate. Without light there is no colour, and light varies, particularly geographically. As David Kramer, director of Square Dot, pointed out: ‘You go to Mexico and the colours are fantastic – they just work. But as a culture in the UK we are very much driven by heritage: it’s in our DNA! We do live in a very grey, rainy, dreary environment that weathers things badly.’

Rabih Hage, director and designer of Rough Luxe Hotel, agreed. ‘Colour is very much linked to countries because of the culture, the materials and the light,’ he said. ‘In Mexico, you want to play with the light and make the colour vibrate.’ Hage gave the example of a project he designed in London for Kuwait. When they installed the colours in the Middle East, they looked ‘rubbish’! He added: ‘We have a culture of being scared of colour. The people who are colour-shy are the architects – they are living for the centuries, and the buildings are going to become grey anyway.’

Ann Noble, marketing manager for Dulux Trade, said she had found architects are often disappointed in the final results when they choose colour for architecture: ‘They choose a colour and think they can imagine what it’s going to be like – put it on a whole building, and with the lighting and the texture, and something about the scale, they are often so disappointed.’

Yet colour is a starting point in design for architects and designers, according to Tanya Fairhurst, head of interior design at i-am associates. Talking about her experience in designing the Material Lab tile showrooms, she explained: ‘The whole concept started with the fact that architects and designers often choose colour first, rather than texture or other things. So it was based on a whole spectrum of pure colour, then inside each of those colours was texture as well. It is interesting that you are first attracted to colour rather than anything else.’

However, Jane Lawrence, a director of Conran & Partners, believed that, despite that, colour often isn’t taken that seriously by designers and architects. ‘To a large extent, what we do with colour is quite token,’ she said. ‘We paint a wall red, we use an orange table – it is emotive, but it’s not fundamental to our design.’ While many around the table agreed – Hage offering, ‘colour is scientific, but the best way of working with it is in a completely subjective way’ – others have tried to make it integral to their work.

Gensler’s senior associate Joseph Durow brought up the case of his practice’s work the project Kent Schools: ‘Colour theory is incredibly important in helping children concentrate in a space. For example, deeper purple colours affect younger children in a different way from how more delicate hues of purple affect older children, because their priorities are not the same. A younger child may be looking for something instant, so they want something bright and vibrant that excites them. A slightly older child is beginning to think about more specific matters that suit them, so the colours that affect them are a little bit more toned down. That’s from some of the research carried out. So for me, what looks right in that space, or what the client wants, has to be married to what is actually effective for people using that space.’

Scott Brownrigg’s interiors director Pernille Stafford said her experience had borne this out: ‘Special-needs children can be really affected by colour and can’t function in quite a harsh environment. They need more subtle colours to feel comfortable – there are certain colours that really affect some children.’

Interestingly, Dulux’s Noble noted: ‘There’s very little evidence that supports this idea of colour psychology.’ However, she indicated she was well aware of colourin- the-environment research, and added: ‘Children of all ages don’t like white, don’t like black and don’t like brown!’

The discussion did not develop into a science-versus-art debate. Indeed, the general feeling around the table was that there is a science involved – sometimes specifically, as in the use of contrast colours for the visually impaired – but that it’s also an art, and often personal preference has a lot to do with it.

Lee Penson, founder and CEO of PENSON Group, espoused that it is actually the designer’s duty to expand the envelope of colour usage: ‘People tend to follow like sheep – I like people who are reckless with colour. What turns us on as a studio is colour coming through surfaces, layering.’

Kramer agreed: ‘We should be pushing the boundaries, not accepting the norm. At the end of the day, I use what I like. We like to use strong colour – it represents personality and makes a difference.’

He also added that the opportunity is here now, saying: ‘There’s a lot more use of paint, which means it’s a lot more refreshable and changeable.’

Dominic Harris, creative director of Cinimod Studio, added that lighting – his personal sphere of expertise – offered the opportunity for more colour and, of course, its ability to vary. This had in fact been the solution in Gensler’s Kent Schools project.

Talking of a recent project for Snog frozen-yoghurt outlets, Harris added: ‘We started off with quite a clean, white environment – there’s no real commitment to colour. It’s the lighting feature above that does that. I’m almost taking the easy way out, as I don’t have to choose!’

It appears that colour is a fairly emotive choice, and will continue to be so for the foreseeable and not-so-foreseeable future. This is what Dulux’s Barton predicts we will be doing: ‘These recessionary times reflect in colours: people are going in two directions and we are predicting two ways forward.

There are either the contemplative colours, particularly at the moment for commercial buildings, which want to pick up on the mood and play it back, not be seen as too ostentatious. The other area is a slight escapism. What we’re seeing as the “light at the end of the tunnel” feeling – bright, airy, hopeful, optimistic colour.’

And so it appears that, no, the future is not orange, even though you had the feeling Square Dot’s Kramer was rather hoping it would be…