Guest Kerry Rowe, a color expert and owner of Kerry Rowe Design, LLC, works with companies to build color palettes and choose the right materials and finishes to help customers connect with their products. She has a deep understanding of the role these decisions have in how customers perceive and value a business and how color and materials influence customers.
“Color drives consumer decisions,” said Rowe. “And if a color is not right on a product, most consumers will dismiss that product immediately. So, color is really important, which is why tracking and predicting color trends is a huge business.”
People may notice the influence of color much more as they grow older, but Rowe says this power starts shortly after birth. The first color perceived by babies is red, and this is linked to basic survival skills. Purchasing decisions are just a drop in the vast bucket of influence that color has.
With all this power, people may think that companies could easily get consumers to buy their products. But predicting trends can be a difficult job. For her clients, Rowe puts together a yearly color and trend forecast presentation that helps make decisions around color, materials and finishes easier. In this episode, there are three major trend categories she sees as not only having an immediate impact on color choices and design, but also on the future of trends and how they will be slowing.
“We're shifting away from this throwaway culture and it will absolutely affect the trend cycle in terms of how frequently things shift,” says Rowe. “I think individual colors themselves will change more slowly…We want the latest, the best, and that doesn't really go hand in hand with sustainability.”
Learn about Rowe’s three trend categories and how they will impact the workplace. Watch, read, or listen to this episode, The Power of Color in Design, on all your favorite podcast platforms.
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