Interface Colour Trends 2005 13Sep04

Screenshot, Source: www.joannawiebe.com

This is what Joanna Wiebe from onemind thinks about the Interface Colour Trends 2005:

Extract:

Color is a powerful tool, but its effect is not yet well understood.

Each color we see gives off electromagnetic wave bands of energy. Each shade has its own wavelength, which evokes physiological responses which override logic. These responses manifest in mood, thought, vision, and behavior, and are somehow related to ancient human memories. Red fire; red blood = danger!

Complex and constant, these color messages are received and responded to with little consciousness. And very few people make any effort to manage the colors they admit to perception.

Because few people manage their personal color environment, many respond without thought to the colors they see. Thus professional communicators have the opportunity to effect cultural shifts through the application of their color choices for software, web applications, and other media and environmental artifacts.

Interface Colour Trends 2005 have a strong relationship with internationally acknowledged colour trends for fashion and home furnishings, but differ from these trends in several important ways:

1. Interface design colour trends move faster than in other industries
2. Interface design colour for electronic media is additive
3. Interface design colour has a greater potential impact on human behavior than the colours used for fashion and home furnishings, in that it can be more easily and swiftly manipulated.

Interface Colour Trends 2005 are grouped into three palettes:

PAST TIME
A past-facing group of lively colours drawn from the 50s and 60s. Think Beach Boys, bright pastels, Florida, Southern California, Westport, CT; orange and green. The PAST TIME palette is particularly useful when the designer is bringing an "old" media into the online environment. For example, use this palette when designing software for online photo management, or online radio stations.

TRUST THE PROCESS
Solidly rooted in the present, TRUST THE PROCESS is blue, blue and more blue. Sun-drenched turquoise, liquid aquamarine, laundry blue, deep cobalt --- anything that speaks of air and water will appear contemporary and appealing in software and web interface design through the end of 2005. A shift toward purple allows for the inclusion of lavender grays, fuchsias, and cool pinks. Design trends include crystalline and disciplined structures or any geometric patterns derived from nature. For business process management or eCommerce, look to blue-tinted neutrals such as navy blues, blue grays, and cobalt black.

NEW TIME
Anticipating the trends of 2006-2007, this group includes a lighter palette, subtle and delicate, with translucent layers, curves, transparency. Blue is again strongly featured but in lighter values, accompanied by a range of yellows, from soft peach to sunflower. Design trends include intricate patterns, shimmering textures, decoration, sparkle. NEW TIME.

related links:
Joanna Wiebe's Colour Palette