TREND FORECAST METHODOLOGY
FORWARD-THINKING. EVOLUTIONARY. WORLD-INSPIRED. DESIGNHOUSE DESIGNHOUSE
Trend forecasting looks to the future but hinges on the here and now.
The team at the Sherwin-Williams DesignHouse is pleased to present our latest industrial color trend forecast. Rooted in science and art, and influenced by sustainability, environment, humanity and equality, our forecast aims to inspire and guide industrial, product and CMF designers through the sensational, layered world of color.
DESIGNHOUSE
To learn more about our industrial color trend forecast, visit designhouse.sherwin.com
INTRODUCING OUR LATEST TREND FORECAST
Reality is assembled in layers. The food we consume, transportation we rely on, buildings we occupy and relationships we form are constructed from fundamental pieces.
Likewise, our DesignHouse in Minneapolis exists from many elements. Once a carriage house and then corporate housing, the land is now in its third life as our collaborative studio. From furnace to facade, we dismantled and rebuilt a space that’s invigorated by history and emblazoned for design.
Layers – and the act of dissecting them – are critical for CMF and industrial designers. Taking every side, dimension and component into account, pieces fuse into parts, and parts fuse into products.
In the FUSE forecast, our team of color experts at the Sherwin-Williams DesignHouse examines how accountability, environment and empathy contribute to the functionalities of design, and the effects they will have on CMF and product development over the next 3-5 years. The stories of ACT, BFF and CEO overlap and blur lines between realities, merging planes of existence for collaborative pursuits.
PROGRAM SUPPORT
Trend Council Members
Leah Novotny
Industrial CMF Designer
Brynn Wildenauer
Architectural CMF Designer
Colorfully,
Kiki Redhead, CMG
Global CMF & Trend Manager, DesignHouse
Robyn Ommen Marketing Communications Marketing
Hannah Seeb Marketing Communications
Creative
Adam Neff Creative Services Manager
Jacob Kostelli Video & Photo Manager
Grace Mierau Content Manager
Shannah Byrnes Content Writer
Sammy Morgan Project Manager
Courtney Nuosci Project Manager
Justin Carolyne Graphic Designer
John Eldred Presentation Support
Olivia Hearn Illustrator
R&D Lab
Amanda Pevito R&D Chemist
Rachel Schwen Color Scientist
Tom Yungbauer R&D Chemist
Propelled by the multidimensional nature of individual perspectives, existence isn’t bound by a dichotomous world. We leave behind the “or” mindset. Instead, we embrace the “and” by intuitively making decisions that bring us inner joy. In this fusion of influences, reality can exist physically and digitally, life can thrive at work and home, and wellness can extend to both the individual and community.
Layers of influence
As a cohesive product was once many fragmented pieces, singular societal impacts blend and emerge to form layers of self, community and humanity. Fatigued by elements outside our realm of control, we redefine our engagement with the world. Experiences inform actions, which must be founded on trust instilled by the many institutions of life, from the workplace, to healthcare, to government, to infrastructure, to technology. Accountability, environment, and empathy are resurgent stories, rendering the influences of FUSE into intentional designs. the
PRODUCT Development Process
TOGETHER, WE...
Market
THRIVE Color match process starts
Marketing
Supply
ACCOUNTABILITYCENTERED TECHNOLOGY
Encrypted in the essence of our lives, technology connects, observes and informs. Reality recalibrates amid what is tangible and simulated. At the beating robotic heart of it all, technology and its overseers have immense obligations. Life remains governable, whether in the metaverse, mesaverse or multiverse.
We expect and enforce accountability from businesses, policymakers, healthcare providers and employers that the novelties piloting our lives are designed to support us, not backlog or harm us. Inviting technology into our sacred spaces, we adopt meta mindfulness and uphold responsibility.
LASER FOCUSED
Matte, warm white
Feels like sand
SYMBIOTIC
Silver and gold
Zinc substrate
FLUORESSENCE
FAIR TRADE
High-gloss
UNTETHERED
Organic green shifts to virtual violet
Rotogravure coil print
Architecture-grade finish
S-W Kameleon accent here
Horticulture BiomimicryT1C2 Symbiotic
T1C1 Focused
Duality glistens in the undulating color shifts and vibrant illuminations of ACT.
Judiciously prodding the bounds of technology, we pioneer a new color spectrum – from the hum of manufactured neon to the glow of merging metallics, trusting in augmented perceptions of purple and green.
T1C4 Fair Trade
Brick by brick, fiber by fiber, code by code, built worlds arise from what was once only illusory. Our infrastructure is more than physical; it’s the scaffolding we traverse between places and relationships. The gradations constructing psyches, mass disruptions paving biospheres and ambitious plans to lay new groundwork are fiber-optic connections stimulating growth. Dullness and dilapidation know no home here.
We cast our decisions onto the blueprint of the future, curating spaces that harmonize environment, wellness, policy and intention. Hospitality returns home, yesterday’s meccas adopt new conventions and immersion pervades the senses to build layer upon layer of awe-inspiring experiences. We step, not gingerly but calculatedly, together into beachcombed universes fabricated for our success.
BUILDING FUTURES
FORTIFIND
Secondary material:woven leather rope in beige
Color: terracotta, Southwest-style
Super durable outdoor powder
Historic architecture Earthen clay Corten steel Foraging Lost and foundFROM THE GROUND UP
Rose gold?pink?
PLACEMAKING
Placemaking
Soft-touch
Low-gloss,
PROCURE
Classic walnut refreshed
Timber framing Restoration Ownership Global supply chain OriginSTRATUM
S-WIW wood finish on seat aggregate texture speckledconcrete,but warmer tone day at the park
VOLATILE
Dark green forests oroceanic depths?
T2C2 From the Ground up
T2C3 Placemaking
T2C1 Fortifind
T2C4 Procure
Sidle up to the restorative organics of BFF – built by humans, for humans.
Construct country roads of rose gold, strongholds of rusty clay and communities of lush green. Uncover solace between smoothed bark and rocky sediment, unfazed by the green-black depths of future shock.
T2C5 Stratum
T2C6 Volatile
Emulsified in cultures at varying levels, empathy is seated at the desk of decision-making. We attune and atone for compassion’s presence in work, health and relationships. In our melting pot of responsibilities, we can either champion others or sit idly by. As conglomerates, we must design programs that include and diversify, and products that consider circularity from today’s use to tomorrow’s reuse. Sequentially, care culture fuses into the fabric of our economy.
CHIEF EMPATHY OFFICER
Empathy delegates life and its cycles, nurtured by the questions of found purpose. As individuals, are we our own CEOs? Do we make our decisions, or welcome the influence of others?
AROHA it pink?
INTROSPECTION
Crinkle orwrinkle texture?
Plastic control for contrast
CARE CULTURE
INPUT/ OUTPUT
INPUT over OUTPUT
REDISCOVERY
ESTEEM
Dripping in gold?
High-gloss
Aluminum base
T3C1
T3C2 Introspection culture
Dynamic perspectives elicit contemplative responses, urging acknowledgment of place and space.
Narrowed gazes capture the complexity of orange-infused fuchsia, gasping breath of second-life materials and delicate equilibrium of bold chromatics and new navy neutrals. Advocating for accessible gold, luxuries shift and shine.