Speaking of niche market car colors Audi designer Steve Lewis describes the color of the new Q5 as “burnt Pacific sunset, sort-of orange umber”.
The UK Telegraph says, “It’s much nicer than that, although we have a substantial bet on that the launch cars will be grey and silver.”
Only time will tell what color they will launch with but it sure does look great in the picture don’t you think?
20th Nov. '07 • Trends • Tags: automotive, black, blue, Color Trends, green, red, silver, white
Filed as Kate Smith
… but around the globe other colors are gaining on the front-runner.
Black, a color that held the top spot on the charts for years has regained its popularity and other hues that are brighter and appeal to niche markets are also stepping up to steal some of the limelight.
According to PPG Industries, a leading manufacturer of transportation coatings globally, silver held the top position as the most popular car color.
2007 Color Ranking
Silver 31.5% [down from '06 ranking of 33.0%]
Black 18.0% [up from '06 ranking of 15.4%]
White 12.5%
Blue 12.4%
Red 8.8%
Naturals (gold, orange and brown tones) 6.6%
Other/niche market colors 5.9%
Green 3.8%
It appears that while many of us want our vehicles to be “green” we don’t prefer them to be painted that color.
20th Nov. '07 • Trends • Tags: home, materials, Trends
Filed as Kate Smith
Here is a well done summary of key product trends for kitchen and bath countertops that was a sidebar to the Product Trend Report at Kitchen & Bath Design News.
Kitchen and Bath Countertop Material Trends at a Glance
Read the complete article at Kitchen & Bath Design and see the Product Photo Gallery…
19th Nov. '07 • Products & Packaging Color • Tags: Books on Color, Trends
Filed as Kate Smith
Reading Matters editor Kimbofo noticed an interesting trend while visiting her local bookstore.
The colors used on the covers of about 25% of the latest releases of hardcover fiction books were amazingly similar– variations of black, grey, red, and pink.
Above are some of the covers currently on display. Thanks for sharing this interesting color observation!
P.S. It appears that Kimbofo was ahead of the trend curve when she chose these colors for the Reading Matters site.
18th Nov. '07 • Products & Packaging Color • Tags: pink, sports
Filed as Kate Smith
The colour of balls used in the English one-day game could change from white to pink if trials by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), guardians of the laws of cricket, prove successful.
“Paint tends to flake off white balls and we have asked (manufacturers) Kookaburra to produce a batch of pink ones because these show up so much better,” MCC’s head of cricket John Stephenson told Tuesday’s edition of the Times newspaper. “The challenge is to produce a ball which retains its colour.
Former England captain Mike Gatting, the ECB’s managing director of cricket partnerships, said: “We have tried white and orange balls and perhaps pink ones will last longer. This is a very interesting and very wise development and a colour may have been found that is easier on the eye.”
It may soon be time to add cricket balls to my list of items showing the trends for the color pink!
18th Nov. '07 • Products & Packaging Color • Tags: blue, website colors
Filed as Kate Smith
In today’s post about boosting AdSense revenue this is what Webupon.com had to say about colors for live links…
“The best color?
Blue. Users already associated the blue color as a link, it´s the default link color.
The second best color?
Matching your website colors. If your links are green, make green ads.”
14th Nov. '07 • Color Names • Tags: chartreuse, green, orange
Filed as Just posted
HP recently added a color thesaurus to their blog “Mostly color perception”.
It is a fun tool where when you enter a color name it gives you four synonyms for that color name along with a sample of each color but the fun doesn’t end there.
The results also show four antonyms. For those more obsessed with color than language the synonym for antonyms is “complimentary colors” 
Since it always seems to me that orange gets the short end of the stick when it comes to creative color names I thought I’d see if any unusal names might come up. Hmmm the choices for orange are a little dissappointing but not unexpected.
Next I tried chartreuse which produced more interesting results. Even I’ll admit that I wouldn’t have thought of slime as a synonym for chartreuse and an antonym for ultraviolet.
Give it a try and let me know what interesting color names you find.
12th Nov. '07 • Brand, Trademark or Signature Color • Tags: brand, painting
Filed as Just posted
On Saturday morning you can usually find me roaming around one of the many neighborhoods in and around DC.
It’s a great time to get a feel for the community, visit a cozy cafe, browse a flea market and make some fun color discoveries.
This weekend while in Crystal City I came upon this colorful crosswalk and simply had to know more.
I learned that artist Anne Marchand was responsible and had added the “racing stripes” at the request of the Crystal City Business Improvement District (BID).
The “racing stripes” were added as a colorful and fun way to greet the 30,000 Marine Corps marathoners with vivid patterns of color just waiting to be crossed as they made their way through the Crystal City section of the 26.2-mile course on Sunday, Oct. 28.
The magical strip reinforces the city’s brand message of being vibrant, fun and not just “smart but brilliant” as seen on the many banners hung along the streets.
What an unexpected pleasure for the marathoners and a wonderful example of an usual application of brand colors.
Even I might be convinced not to jaywalk if all crosswalks were this fun!
10th Nov. '07 • Color Around the World • Tags: pink, thailand, Trends, yellow
Filed as Kate Smith
People across Thailand have started wearing pink shirts in tribute to their beloved 79-year-old king, who checked out of a hospital this week dressed in a blazer and a dress shirt of that color.
For about two years, Thais have shown their respect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej by wearing yellow _ the color that in Buddhist tradition symbolizes Monday, the day of the week the monarch was born.
Many Thais have donned yellow shirts every Monday since 2006, the year of Bhumibol’s 60th anniversary on the throne. The tribute has continued this year to celebrate his 80th birthday on 5 Dec.
But it looks like pink is about to become the new yellow in Thailand. Demand for pink T-shirts is picking up.
Astrologers have determined pink to be an auspicious color for the king’s 80th year. A royal emblem, using pink among other colors, was specially designed for his birthday.
(Photo courtesy: AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)
25th Oct. '07 • Products & Packaging Color • Tags: advertising, Sony
Filed as Color videos
Following the trend of various other game consoles, the next generation of the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) will be released with different color options in the near future. It’s currently available in Japan.
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