Color Trends and Local Talent

I thought I'd share a recent blog post I came across from Jude Stewart called RDA Color Trends, From Coast to Coast on Imprint-The Online Community for Graphic Designers. In it she highlights some local award winning work and summarizes the latest nationwide color trends, as seen in Print’s Regional Design Annual 2010.

Her color picks:

• Strong yellow with hot pink
• The new browns: cardboard, buff and sepia
• Sky-blue
• Honey-bees and tuxedos: yellow with B&W
• Super-dark purples
• The new CMYK and alternate rainbows

And she just happens to feature some local West Michigan work, People Design's commemorative Artprize poster. How cool is that?

According to Stewart, "While not exactly a new trend, more than a few projects from this year’s RDA turned to natural-pulp paper and a related palette of soft browns. It’s a durable trend for many reasons, several of which are unusually relevant right now. Browns are warm, rich and tactile –a luxurious feel on the cheap. Their almost living texture (whether actual in print work or suggested in web projects) makes an equally fitting background for crisp, “produced” messages or handmade stamping or other crafty angles. Browns and tans hint at heritage, authenticity, craftmanship, credibility and Americana. They push that right optimistic button, suggesting a blank slate to be filled with fresh, even noble ideas, whether that expresses itself as corkboard, parchment, wood, concrete or butcher drawing paper."  Check out the full article: http://bit.ly/fmg0Yj

Be sure to check out French 's Speckletone & Dur-O-Tone lines, Mohawk 's new Loop Antique Vellum and Wausau's Royal Fiber for papers that CMP offers in that natural, rich brown palette.

And a big thumbs up to People Design from your CMP fans!

P.S. Here is the link to Print's Regional Design Annual 2010. Kind of exciting that RDA is online for the first time in its thirty year history. http://bit.ly/gHQD7L