Radiant Orchid is the Pantone Color of the Year, according to Leatrice (Lee) Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute.
“It’s a beautiful color,” she said. “The inspiration for it is a harmony of fuchsia and pink undertones, like a gorgeous sunset. It’s a hue that sparks the imagination. It is a magical, captivating and enigmatic color.”
In her presentation at the International Home + Housewares Show, titled “New Harmonies: Changing Themes in Color/Design Trends,” Eiseman – who is also director of the Eiseman Center for Color Information and Training, and author of several books on color – said that Radiant Orchid can increasingly be found in architecture and lighting, both outdoors and indoors, and even in hair color and makeup, especially in high fashion.
“We saw this color making inroads several years ago, even in menswear,” Eiseman said. The Disney movie “Frozen” is full of Radiant Orchid, she noted, in part because the color personifies a certain type of magic.
In addition to movies, there are other factors that influence the process of naming the color of the year and overall color trends, Eiseman said, including the economy. “This is a great time for creativity with color, yet there are many people who still want things from the past, based on these uncertain times. So we increasingly see color combinations of the past and of today. We bring in our history and polish the nostalgic looks.”
Another design trend is butterflies. “We cannot get enough butterflies,” Eiseman said. “That motif is huge going into 2015. We are seeing it in every possible application. Butterflies are all about change and that is the age that we are living in.”
With regard to the major color families, Eiseman said that green will continue to be heavily used, although hues of the color will expand, such as Hunter Green. In the yellow family, she sees greenish-yellow undertones increasingly being used. In the blue family, the hues will become more energized, such as classic indigo.
The orange color family is puzzling, but it captures attention and people have slowly embraced it. “It will undergo some variations. If you want to do a variation on orange, combine it with peaches, which are coming on very strong,” Eiseman said.
Red will always have a strong presence in the housewares industry, she added, but she predicted “newer and fresher voices of red, combined with orange, pink and purple.”
Black and white will never go away, she said, and neutrals will have a strong presence in 2015.
