We showcase a lot of new design over here at M.E., presenting the latest creations of designers - both established and upcoming. But having spent a great deal of our time trendspotting at the big design fairs recently, we've been wondering where these trends come from, what stimulates them and moreover, what is to come...

M.E. spoke to Francesca Valan who works in the design industry as a Colour Forecasting and Material Application Consultant and is one of Italy's most distinguished experts in the area of material and colour trends forecasting. A graduate of the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, Francesca Valan has advised many international companies and brands such as Atomic Sports, Adidas-Salomon, Bosch, Hitachi, NEC, Samsung and Lego on strategic product colour and material application. She lectures at the Milanese Istituto Europeo di Design and is an associate expert at the Management Institute for Innovation and Design. 

Tell us a little bit about your work - what exactly does your research comprise of? What resources do you draw on? How does it fit in to the design industry as a whole?

My research is usually referred to as CMF design (colour, material and finishing), and is focused on the visual language evolution which evolves with time. Fashion, automotive; toys; all these evolve both in colours and chromatic schemes, and in materials and finishing. Changes are cyclic: neutral colors, which are the 'noise' background of a period, follow cycles that were decennial, and that now are reduced to about seven years. For instance, metallized grey has been substituted by white, and now will be substituted by the natural, which has not been significantly present in design since the 70s. Accent colours are those colours which characterise an object; after the populartity of orange and purple-blue at the beginning of this century, we are now in the green and fuchsia accent period, which will be replaced by oil-blue and yellow (which have been absent since the 80s). Fashion colours change every two years. To design the colour of an object, it is fundamental to understand the product history, from general trends one must then focus to particulars, such as in which market it will be sold, to who it is offered - certain products are conservative, other innovative. Choosing the wrong colour means designing a 'wrong' product.

How did you get into colour and material forecasting? Was it a conscious career choice, or something that came about through other work you were involved in?

During the first year of industrial design I was attracted by the emotional aspects of the objects, which is not limited to colour, but also involves their character, and is given by materials and finishing, and not only by their shape. Colour design was born with the explosion of colours of the 80s. By the 90s, objects were characterised more by the material than by colours, and today, finishing plays the major role in the identity of objects.

You are currently an associate expert at the Management Institute for Innovation and Design, What kind of projects are you working on there?

Now, I am following projects related to colours in the sport sector, but I am deeply interested in the visual language of the child world.

What attracts you to this specifically?

New-born babies cannot see colours, but can perceive only high brightness contrasts. With time, they can decode the signals of their environment, and adapt to it. Colour is a language that everybody makes use of, but few know. Understanding and properly using colours is not a natural gift, but is achieved through a correct education. Like music, colour has precise harmonic rules, which must be approached when children. Understanding colour means being able to see; and being able to see, provides new keys to interpret reality. A correct use of colours leads to an improvement of our visual space, and thus of our quality of life.

Naturally, we'd like to hear some predictions! What are your thoughts for the future in terms of material and colour in design? What do you think we will be seeing more of, and why?

In the future, the chromatic aspect will be less important than the tactile one. The age of monochrome, and of white schemes with accents is over, and new chromatism will come back - polychromatic objects with a low saturation and mixed, recycled, varied colors. Chromatisms more free than the ones of the 80s, and more ecologically aware.

Is it possible to say generally what sort of things cause a shift in colour choices/trends? Is it related directly to socio-economic events in the world? Or is it more subtle than that?

My favourite comparison is the one with food: as we get tired of a certain type of food if we eat it too often, the same way we get tired of a colour if it remains for too long in our view. Colours have a visual expiry date. Furthermore, there are also other aspects to take into account; usually in a crisis period people prefer objects with neutral colours, which have a longer visual life. In this period, black and white have a great success. A black or white cell phone is less 'tiring' and thus lasts longer than a fuchsia phone.

Why do you think tactility is becoming more important than colour in object design? Are we becoming more connected to our surroundings? Is this tied to an increasing awareness of environmental issues for instance? Or something else?

Tactility is a language that we have forgotten, because we prefer the precision of the visual or sound language. Design is re-discovering tactility, because it is a language that gives a direct access to emotions. Emotions will be the marketing keys to a world overloaded with objects, such as the western world. Giving value to formal and tactile aspects promotes a simplified aesthetics of objects, without useless graphics and toxic manufacturing such as chromizing. Thus, we can expect that tactility will lead to more environmentally aware objects.

Does your work in colour affect your own personal choices? Do you find yourself consciously, or unconsciously selecting objects or even clothing in colours that you see becoming popular in your work, or do you like to step outside the trends?

Living colours before they are born, I find them already old when I see them applied to commercial objects. I neglect fashion, because, as we say in Italian, usually the shoemaker has broken shoes! Having colours always in my mind, I don't need to be surrounded by a colourful world...