The Voice of Color

Recently Barbara and I were in Houston to attend a color seminar presented by Pittsburgh Paint and hosted by Design Within Reach. I can assure ou that the DWR folks were wonderful hosts, the showroom was impeccable, and the catered food was scrumptious.

The fast paced PPG presentation on color focused almost entirely on the demographics of style and trends – who decides what is popular, trendy, stylish, and hip. As you might guess, color is both a factor, and an element defining popular style, and is affected by current events, cultural moods, and even generational ethos.

For example, one such factor is global awareness of our need to conserve, and protect the environment – everyone is thinking green. Another, is the global economy and the desire for better days ahead, in other words, optimism. These two factors alone make the current popular colors that combine clear, crisp, natural colors. Even Pantone’s color of the year, Mimosa, evokes a warm sunny outlook. That’s not to say you’d want your whole house painted Mimosa!

But what colors would you like to surround yourself with? PPG introduced a neat little online color palette selection tool called the Color Sense Game. This “game” gives you a short seven-question personality quiz to determine your palette. To play the game online, go to: www.voiceofcolor.com , and click on the Color Personality box in the middle of the page. I have to say that I didn’t much care for the first palette (Al Fresco), but  the alternate, Desert Spice was much more to my liking. Try it, have some fun. Play the game more than once. Also on the VOC page you will find some other great color collections, one of which is sure to tickle your fancy. Enjoy!