BE BOHLD

By Wendy Noory

How does a color become the color of the year? What influences these palettes to make them successful, popular or a noted key color for an entire geographical region? Today, the top manufacturers of home décor, appliances, paint companies, fashion houses and even automotive rely on color trend research and forecasting. Long before the color trend hits the market to the consumer, there is a product development team creating the concepts and new masterpieces which will soon be the greatest colors and materials for the season.

This year, Color Marketing Group (www.colormarketing.org), a leader in the professional color forecasting industry, has noted that the color Bohld will be a key color for the North American region for 2023. Bohld is a deep, neutral black. A grounding, rich, universal hue representing strength and power. This color will be very influential to the architecture and interior design industries. Black is back, but did it ever really go away? It is a color with a changing lifecycle; it is either more prominent and in the forefront of design or it is just an accent color, but it will always have a presence. The color trend is already becoming a statement in kitchen design and home décor, such as paints, cabinetry and furnishings.

Black was one of the first colors used in art in the Neolithic cave paintings. Beginning in historic ancient times, the color black in art had a negative connotation. Shown in ancient Egypt and Greece, black was the color of the underworld or darkness and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death and mourning. Going forward many years, a complete opposite meaning for the color black evolved into a sophisticated, classic, modern, elegant and powerful color. The little black cocktail dress, the black BMW, luxury black handbags all create the vision of being expensive or worth more. Color plays a factor in all designed spaces and products, each creating a unique mood or experience while viewing. Graphic design uses the strong opposite factor of black when paired with white; it expresses extreme opposite. This is shown in typography, the yin and yang, salt and pepper and night and day.

In architecture and design, the trend for the classic and historic equals black windows, shower frames and faucets in a matte black finish, wrought iron gates and fencing and simple black lighting fixtures. Black furnishings that have a handcrafted elegance will be paired with golden pulls and handles. 2023 is looking like a modern, stylish, minimalist time with color that will forever be BOHLD.