COLOUR EXPERT MARIANNE SHILLINGFORD SHARES WORDS OF WISDOM
This month’s theme explores Colour In Design, calling on emerging talent to question the importance of colour, provide insight into their design process and discover why it is paramount to that particular designer’s practice.
We also look to industry professionals to shine a light on this topic, collecting expert advice and guidance for the next wave of designers and those interested in how brands align or consider the significance of colour in design.
Creative director of Dulux and founder of Colour in Design Award, Marianne Shillingford, shares personal insight into what Colour In Design means to an industry expert and insightful advice for any emerging designer.
What does Colour In Design mean to you?
Colour is the element of design that gets my heart beating.
It’s probably the most used but undervalued part of the creative process and yet it can make all the difference to the success of everything it touches. It’s also a visual language that speaks to us everyday and if designers learn to understand and speak the language their work is richer for it.
How does your brand utilise the many qualities and emotions colour can provide and evoke within design? Do any colours match your brand’s personality?
I’m Creative Director of Dulux and so colour is fundamental to the success of our paints. We all want a more meaningful experience of the spaces in which we live and work and painted colour on the walls and surfaces of our homes can give us just that.
Our brand has a rainbow flourish that perfectly captures the simple joy colour brings and it’s ability to transform the everyday into something wonderful.
Do you have any colour predictions for 2022?
Nature, the most precious commodity we have will be even more influential in the colour choices we make. Our homes will become much more inspiring, colourful and creative as we embrace greater freedom in a post COVID world and begin to enjoy everything life has to offer once more.
If 2020 was a colour, what would it be for you and why?
Warm clay. It’s elemental, reliable, earthy, soothing and familiar.
What would be your advice to an emerging designer who is passionate about Colour In Design?
Use colour as a tool and consider it as one of the most important elements of your design. Why do you think Apple put the colour of their new devices on a par with new technology? It’s because it’s important and excites us in ways we have yet to fully understand and utilise.
Where does your brand find your colour inspiration from?
Like all creatives we are inspired by nature and influenced by the past, present and future trends in design and lifestyle but more importantly we seek to understand what we all want, need and value – and from this point we can start to create colours that have a positive impact on our lives and living spaces.
Marianne Shillingford – founder of the Colour in Design Award and Creative Director of Dulux
