This question might be quite important when it comes to fashion, design, environment planning or trade. But the question here is: who is going to set the trend?
As a fashion designer you might need condensed information about the latest colour trend or tendencies for the next seasons. For this reason, Intercolor (ICfin), an international Commission for Colour, which was established in 1993 has come up with a tool that helps you to follow the latest trend – so called colour cards. Intercolor is a non-profit organization and an international and interdisciplinary platform of various colour experts.
Nowadays, Intercolor includes not only European countries as members, but also many Asian countries, including altogether 16 countries. They have various meetings and workshops together, where each country can show their suggest of what might be in as for becoming trends.
We were honored to participate the lecture where Tuija Maija Piironen, President of Suomen Intercolor ICfin ry, introduced us the S/S 18 trends and colour chart. The Intercolor Congress is held twice a year within two days. Each country member hosts the conference in turn and during the whole meeting. The exchange of several point of views, concepts and ideas set up the colours as a basis for the upcoming trend for one season. Furthermore, the congress provides a good occasion to give all the members a thorough inside of the host country.
Colour Cards – A Guidance on International Colour Trends
These colour cards are created through the collaborations of 16 countries that collect ideas reflected in the nature, products, fashion, and inspired by various art forms such as pictures, sculptures and architectures from different visual artists all over the world. The Intercolor Encounter session can be seen as a perfect platform, where these 16 multi-dimensional perspectives can share ideas on the new definition of colours for the future. It is not about the perfect combination of colours, but about questioning today’s world in which we are living.
The Spring-Summer 2018 Colour Card & its Inspiration Sources
The spring-summer 2018 colours are outlined in Shanghai in 2016 on the international colour meeting.
Intercolor has come up with four different colour groups that can be seen as a perfect trend guide for designers. The colour card contains a wide range of colour shades in its purest form, from warm to cold and soft to strong. Moreover, the structures and materials are getting more important. That is why all the presentations of the colour cards are still in paper or fabric forms. Material matters and the possibility to touch it, especially the structure is essential.
The four colour groups include 28 colours in total that are associated with several topics, which affect today’s world. They indicate issues such as climate change, individual identity such as gender issues and digitalization.
Starting point of all the idea sources are words. “What is going on in our world?” and “What might be in two years?” are questions that the forum has to face with in any trend creation processes. It is not only about the creation of infinity combination of colours, but also about the understanding of what remains in our world that affects the definition on how colours might change.
Jenni, Elina, Yuqi and Thanh
