Let’s share an environmentally-coloured journey. Rework Trends provides background and commentary, focusing on art and ecology to offer practical applications for using colour creatively with the combined goals of regional marketability and improved sustainability.
Rework Trends is based on my exploratory experience as an amateur artist. I was encouraged to practice and produce. I was creating lots of output without thinking through the implications of my choices about subject matter and material use.
There are many aspects of artistry to analyze for theory, media, trends and sustainability. I have chosen so far only to focus on colour. I started reading about the Physics of Colour and Psychology of Colour. I soon understood that our ecology and the human experience of colour are inseparable.
With healthy skepticism about marketing, I started going back over decades of media to look at our socio-political evolution and associated colour Trends. I began to consider the business of colour: of the design trade, of professional colorists, and leading institutes such as Pantone. I wondered about the influence of vertical integration across production industries and how this might influence what colours are promoted on a continuous, recurrent or newly emerging basis.
Over the decades, trendy colours were not always synched across fashion, décor, furnishings, or building materials. A few traditional colours are still used to convey conformity with standardized uniforms reflecting inclusion. When modern consumerism kicked in (and those who could afford it became hungry for variety), there was a growing compulsion to express more individualism. We, as producers and consumers alike, may have unwittingly become drivers of a relentless consumer cycle – a cycle we are now recognizing as problematic both for ethics and our own survival as a species.
My thinking about Colour Trends shifted. I began to categorize patterns, as promoted, within social and environmental circumstances. I started to see and consider impacts of Enduring Classic Trends, Recurrent Trends and Emerging Trends. This led me back to an interest in Colour Iconography: the meaning of colours and their differing use and symbolism within and across cultures in a world of increasing diversity.
In the 1950s, the development of plastics introduced new vibrant colours, such as turquoise. Many other colours were in vogue and coordinated across cars, fashion, appliances, and home finishing. The love relationship with the car and American Dream spilled over into Canada.
Recently and regionally, there has been increased interest in material recycling and product reuse. Renewable home finishing materials and those with smaller ecological impact are more so in demand. Many consumers are now searching for retro, classic or vintage items that can be incorporated in more flexible decorating styles. A refreshing new style of eclectic, rustic charm can be accomplished by amateurs, using new methods such as Chalk Paint ®, without all the chemical processing required prior.
As artists and creatives, we face a modern challenges: how can we indulge our creativity but create objects which will endure and remain useful? How can our inputs and outputs be selected to consider the environmental challenges we face? And, how can our outputs be as marketable as possible, synchronized but flexible enough to appeal during shifting tides of fashion?