GLOBAL COLOUR SURVEY COMES TO SYDNEY

A good turnout of the graphic design community responded to an invitation to take part in the second round of the world’s largest colour survey to find the ‘colour of the future’, the event held in Sydney.

Invited by paper merchant BJ Ball to Nathan Leong’s speciality print facility, The Distillery, in inner city Darlinghurst, designers heard Ben Watkinson, brand manager of UK paper manufacturer, G.F. Smith predict the future will be less colourful. The Hull-based marketer flew into Sydney after launching the Colour of the Future survey in New York the week before. It’s the follow up to the groundbreaking 2017 survey, The World’s Favourite Colour project that saw 26,596 people from 100 countries nominate their particular favourite hue. The winner was determined to be Marrs Green, named after Annie Marrs from Dundee in East Scotland, who was inspired by the River Tay. 

Since then, Watkinson maintains, the world has steadily become more monochromatic. Décor, clothes, cars, even the pixels in photos, are becoming progressively leached of colour, trending towards grey, black and white. European birds are supposed to be less colourful now as a result of climate change.  

But all is not lost, or grey. Colours, such as Vanta Black and Super White are introducing new levels of intense colour and the future, as always remains, unknown. Fiat, the carmaker, for one is striking back against the trend towards dull colour by bringing out a new range of bright orange autos. Watkinson urged everyone to log on to take part in the survey at https://colourofthefuture.com/ where participants can engage with a favourite colour they think represents the future. They’ll then be asked what the colour means to them and why. 

The increasingly novel conjunction of designers and print came as part of BJ Ball’s promotion of its Colorplan range of premium papers. Martin Hosking, sales manager BJ Ball said the G.F. Smith product comes in 55 colours and retains its premium position, even as printers and designers continue to struggle to convince marketers of the value of vibrant colours. 

For the mainly young audience of designers, The Distillery with its four Heidelberg Original letterpresses and Polar Guillotine provided an introduction to printing. The resilience of the letterpress technology has seen an increase in the number of bespoke printers in recent years. Nathan Leong, long the doyen of the trade, tells me there are now at least five commercial firms supplying the market mainly for wedding and event invitations and premium commercial applications.