Color. Walking the show floor on the second day I was struck by how many companies chose to use color. In working with retail brands and retail, it has been a re-occurring theme for some time now that designers work to develop a signature color for brands. What I find so interesting on this year's show floor is that so many companies have chosen to use a spectrum of rich, saturated colors. Here are a few snaps from the show floor.
Seeing all this color makes me ask the question, “how do designers
work with brand and is color about to see a significant shift?” This idea of a shift in thinking is
something we recently discovered with a brand identity package we designed for Montecito Village Grocery. During the initial phases of design
exploration for this brand, the client wanted a signature color for the
brand. As we explored the brand traits
we discover that a single color for this brand was too limiting and too
serious. We needed to design ways that
the brand could reveal its friendly, playful personality. So we developed a signature color
palette.
While the yellow color and gray is the main introduction
color for the brand, you can see the gray also works with the red, blue and
ivory. The modified gingham pattern
helps to communicate the casual friendly personality of the brand.
With all the ways brands communicate with shoppers now, there
are such great opportunities for brands to engage with color and still be on
brand. I believe we are seeing a shift
in the way brands think about how they use color. Seeing
all the saturated color on the show floor at Global Shop 2015 reinforces my
drive to explore color more thoughtfully with each of the brands I work
with. Brands like people have range to
their personalities – imagine a person deciding in their formative years that
they will only wear one color for the rest of their lives!
Julie Dugas