Colours Past

Colour evolution over the years

Each year our colour forecast offers a snapshot of trends for the forthcoming year and it is fascinating to see how tastes have evolved and changed over the years.

Key Colour Stories

The key colour in each colour family gives a clear direction as to where each hue is moving to and has travelled from. Gold, mustard or lemon: where will this year’s yellow take us?

Reds: from strawberry to deep damson this is an ever popular colour family. From 2010 onwards their tone has been consistent, with the exception in 2014.

Oranges: we see a shift from more yellow oranges in the earlier years to a more red-orangey tone in the last six years.

Yellows: we have seen yellows travel the full spectrum over the years from fresh citrus to burnt ochre and this year’s favourite is a beautiful soft gold.

Greens: the most diverse of all the colour stories, green has taken us from palest, almost yellow to deep teal and everything in between.

Blues: in 2013 indigo made a splash as the colour of the year but since then we have seen deep blues with a green undertone and this year’s is even darker.

Violets: the violet key colour has been deep, dark and mysterious over the years, but for 2015 it was a pale sugary tone. This year we pick up where we left it in 2014.

Cool neutrals: the family of cool neutrals has been “everywhere” in its spectrum. But, after many years of gentle greys we see a dramatic change this year.

Warm neutrals: since 2011 we have seen the domination of mid tone and light neutrals with a grey tone, but this year we return to a more traditional warm neutral.