076 DESIGN SEMINAR


quite hard, because sometimes it can be so obvious and yet trying to explain it to a client can be one of the most diffi cult things – having to tell them why, in a year’s time, this is not going to work for them anymore. I think that’s why in a lot of ways we try to persuade the client to stick with something pastel, but instead go vibrant with vinyl so that it’s easy to change if you need to.


‘Previously, a lot of the colour pops that I used to design perhaps came through furniture. But now there is a longevity in furniture and so actually there’s a case for keeping the furniture fairly neutral and allow the vibrancy to come through in other ways. ‘T at’s partly about sustainability but it’s also an understanding of businesses; people are interchangeable now in how they work. And you only need a new MD to come in and they want to switch everything on a cost- eff ective budget. T at has to come into it, but at the end of the day, it is all about opinion and trying to manage that.’


Keeping trends in check


Manufacturers spend an enormous amount of research in producing colours that are intended to set the trends for the years ahead. But do architects and designers have even the slightest bit of interest in these manufacturer- instigated ‘trends’? Richardson-Prescott said: ‘It’s good to have them as a reference, although I don’t think a “colour of the year”


‘There is going to be a long- term change in mental health, with a really big focus on neurodiversity and inclusion. Just bringing in the natural world is inherently calming and good for the soul and for wellness – this is not only biophilia but it’s also about the hues and tones that you bring into the environment.’ Adrian Norman


would determine what I choose for an interior. But in a sense, we are all infl uenced by these factors around us to an extent, so perhaps it is most helpful in terms of defi ning a moment in time. Some of it maybe helps us make sense of these changes from a historical perspective.’ Khurana agreed that colour trends are important for designers to be aware of, although they must never be slaves to them: ‘T ey must be considered holistically and not as purely a fashion moment to paint a space by. Trends often respond directly to the mood or shift in society at that specifi c time, but when we are designing, we have to be cognisant of their impact – sometimes our responsibility as designers is to be using colours that are opposite to trends in order to off er balance and create stability that is sometimes needed within society; when there is discord, our designs and colour schemes can provide harmony and balance regardless of colour trends of the time.’


Colour stereotypes persist of course. Dowling wondered: ‘I’m not sure how “aggressive pink” came to represent “punk” and then, generations later, it was seen as female or “girly” and not at all linked to that aggressive punk pink.’


Khurana added: ‘Yes, the pink thing is just crazy. If you look at where it has come from, pink was viewed as a boys’ colour until around the 1950s, when some marketeer decided he was going to shift it around.’


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