Blog entries tagged with Interior Trends

This week the brand has taken its distinctive vision to Antwerp (as perviously mentioned, one of Europe's most enticing of cities) with a new store in the middle of town in conjunction with directional brand emporium, Louis.

The store itself is a good indication of the direction interior trends are travelling in right now. Especially poignant considering its hotly anticipated interiors range in the pipeline. Acne's signature checkered floor sets off a selection of simple interior components including simple shelves and trestle tables in simple tones. But the key element to watch out for is the brass fittings and features, which add consderable warmth to an otherwise rather clinical interior space. This kind of material use, raw materials, light on the polish but diffusing the light rather than deflecting it is really showing through strongly at the moment.

It's these raw metals used as partitioning or breaking up a space which is popping up frequently at the moment. Expect to see this kind of 'colour' treatment balancing well with the launch of the Malmsten-inspired Acne furniture which will almost certainly be sparsely coloured.

Swedish paint company Alcro has linked up with the world's foremost trend forecaster and ex Eindhoven Academy Chairwoman, Li Edelkoort for its tenth collection of design-specific colours. Called ad.10, this collection continues Alcro's work with designers and architects from across the globe in its capsule collections for its specialist line, Alcro Designers.
"An army of dark neutral colours will revolutionise interior design, making it more abstract and minimalist, like a Japanese rock garden," says Edelkoort.
ad.10 features seven colour families numbering four in each, with three extra contemporary colours taking in gold and matte-black. They are suitable for surfaces and indeed can be used in any interior space. "The end of an era of individualism has come. We rely on each other, network and collaborate. This important change in society will give us the uniform colours inspired by the pigeons that flock together in the dark, grey areas. Green, blue and purple accents give life to base colours while concrete-grey becomes a key colour in interior design," the forecaster continues.
It's a good looking colour collection this year from Alcro, really harnessing the key colours which are working well at the moment this year. It's not groundbreaking though by any means, accents against grey always work well but it's by taking the edge of these accents that Edelkoort's collection works so well. It's not aggressively 'poppy' which gives her accents more longeivity and the aility to remain relevant for more than a single season.

Product designers have always been faced with a problem where colour choice is concerned. Aside from the inherent problems of securring the right colour - solved easily by using NCS throughout your design process, you are faced with the initial colour choices. Do you play it safe and pick monochrome? What about a trend colour?
The former choice means that you have to have utter confidence in your product as weaknesses will show up to the viewer, highlighted by comparison to other products in the market. If you have missed out an important detail like covering a screw top or forgetting to sand down welds then they are going to show up like red wine on a white carpet. Trend colours are good if you want to quickly catch your customer's eye but remember that upon purchasing most customers tone things down a little - sadly a factor of the time in which we live.
That said, if you have paid attention to details and really want to show off the superior craftsmanship of your manufacturers, underline your design credentials, create a crisp aesthetic there is no other colour with which to do so than white.
As an example here's the latest creation from Sson bikes, a small Swedish company making some very big waves in a very specialised market. Its latest model is aimed at the super-hip fixedgear market (today's bike du jour). It's called the Sson 028. And it's white. In the grand scheme of the world of bikes if you have made a bike and launched it in white it has to be spot on. It is too, the company spent ages on the geometry and sourcing parts while the frame and forks were created in the east - where they found some of the best contemporary bike builders to weld them up.
Fixedgear bikes are tpically clean, minimal and unfussy and Sson's use of white is a real statement of intent. So if you have paid the same level of attention to detail as these chaps then white is the colour for you. It's the subtle way to show off your skills.

www.sson.org
 

Christmas can and has come early for Ida Fält who was the lucky winner of a whole year full of inspiration courtesty of four copies of Mix magazine which will be winging their way to her next year.
She can look forward to incredible features, forward trends, micro trends, colour advice and other assorted information from around the world. Architecture, design, textiles, materials and much more.
Despair not though fair reader - for if you want to be like Ida and get four copies of Mix action through your own door next year just click here and subscribe to one of the world's most influential magazines.

At the moment we are hosting a few days of workshops organised by Swedish 'colour boutique' Colorama who are taking advantage of the conditions we have in our office. We've got a variety of different spaces, each featuring perfect simulated daylight conditions, which makes colour assesment and colour design absolute bliss.
Of course it's not only the lighting which makes for a productive session - you'll have access to our library of colour materials, colour samples and colour tools including NCS Colour Scan 2.0 to help in your work. We'll even clear up for you!
For more information on the spaces, costings or arranging a visit just drop us a line.