This week I am writing to you from Palm Springs
in California, considered a mecca for Mid-Century Modern Architecture and
Style. I am attending the Color Marketing Group's International Summit, and
enjoying hanging out with fellow Color Passionistas.
Unfortunately the timing of this conference means I was home for just a few
days after the Houston Quilt
Festival. We have the first 3 videos up,
including the tribute to Libby Lehman. Several more videos are being produced
from Houston, and you'll see those popping up in the next couple weeks. We will
also have a couple clips of Sophie and I on new episodes of Quilting Arts TV.
One of my fellow Color Marketing Group members is Lee Eiseman, who chooses (and
announces to the media) the annual Color of the Year. I saw her after lunch
today and yes, they have chosen the next Color of the Year, which will be
announced soon! She said that in their office, they use a code word for the new
Color of the Year, just in case hackers tried to steal the information before
it is announced. You can see Lee talking about Spring
2014 colors in a video on this page.
It is so interesting to hear designers and product developers talk about color
trends, from other industries' points of view. In the last couple days I've
heard about corporate color choices for cars, cell phones, headphones, $1000
cakes, glass, iPad covers, and more. They talk about things like the coarseness
of the metallic in a paint, or the viscosity of a gloss.
It is also interesting to compare the 2013 color palettes with our top selling
fabrics at eQuilter. When I buy a broad color palette of fabrics at Market, and
then we put them online and track the top-selling colors, often our customers
are choosing very forward colors from our offerings. That tells me that you are
all not just on trend, but often are part of the consumers who are creating a
trend. There is a natural organic and predictable movement in color trends. We
buy the colors that we feel will be important 6 months in the future, and then
our customers come and confirm our color trend projections. I just love how
that works!
Modernism has been a big trend for many years, since Mad Men and similar style
influences have saturated pop culture. Another huge trend driver has been, and
will be, the British period series "Downton Abbey". Julian Fellowes
has signed an agreement to produce DA for many years to come, so we'll be
enjoying not only the upstairs/downstairs soap opera on TV, but we'll also be
enjoying future collections of the Andover licensed fabrics from Downton!
Please
help us to help Libby Lehman!
