Sherwin-Williams STIR Special Issue 2016

SPECIAL ISSUE 2016

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS®

®

OUR 2017 COLOR FORECAST IS HERE …and we saved you a slice

THE SCIENCE OF COLOR PERCEPTION What you need to know about chromatic bias

PLUS:

The colorful art of Maggie Austin, cakemaker to the stars SW 6683 BEE

The Sherwin-Williams Company Director, Trade Communications: Tresa Makowski Director of Color Marketing: Sue Wadden

Hanley Wood Marketing Creative Director: Dobby Gibson Editor: Kitty Shea Executive Art Director: Sandy Girard Art Director: Cate Hubbard Content Director: Kate Fisher Assistant Editor: Molly Burke Production Director: Pam Mundstock Production Artists: John Hanka, Karen Wolcenski Project Manager: Julie Ollila Account Director: Martha Capps STIR® magazine is published by Hanley Wood, LLC, on behalf of The Sherwin-Williams Company, for interior designers and architects.

Please direct correspondence to: Sherwin-Williams STIR magazine Hanley Wood 430 1st Ave. N., Suite 550 Minneapolis, MN 55401 Phone: (612) 338-8300 Email: contact@swstir.com Website: sherwin-williams.com Printed in the United States, © 2016 Sherwin-Williams

C

ongrats, friends, you made it past our decadent, three-tiered-cake cover — that took serious photo shoot was. What an honor to have master pastry chef Maggie Austin create that exquisite cake

just for us, using a palette from our 2017 Sherwin-Williams colormix™ color forecast as her inspiration.

It’s a sign of just how much delicious color there is inside this year’s STIR®. Definitely check out our interview with Maggie (p. 20), who travels the world to bring her work to her customers.

The ways she thinks about color in her job — which involves no small amount of structural design — is fascinating.

I’m so excited to step into the role of director of color marketing

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for Sherwin-Williams. My entire career has prepared me for this opportunity. After getting my degree in interior design, I’ve spent the past 15 years developing color tools and resources for Sherwin-Williams customers of all kinds — including both designers and consumers.

I plan to bring everything I know to my job, providing you with the resources and inspiration you need to fuel your design practice — beginning with this issue of STIR and our new color forecast (p. 12). Dig in and enjoy.

SUE WADDEN Director of Color Marketing The Sherwin-Williams Company

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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willpower! You can imagine how tempting that

Sincerely,

The trademarks and copyrights of Sherwin-Williams appearing in STIR are protected.

Color Confections

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®

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS® SPECIAL ISSUE 2016 CONTENTS

COLOR CHIPS

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Introducing Paint Shield™: The paint with the power to kill bacteria.

COMMERCIAL PROJECT

5

RED REVIVAL A seedy San Francisco movie palace wins a second act and loudly announces it to the neighborhood.

COLOR TECHNOLOGY

HOW TO DELIVER TRUE COLOR TO CLIENTS

10

Simple tips to improve your understanding of color performance in the paint — ultimately allowing you to deliver more accurate, consistent hues.

2017 COLOR FORECAST

12

Sherwin-Williams colormix™ 2017 is here.

PRIMA PÂTISSIÈRE

20

Learn how Maggie Austin constructs and colors her high art before it falls to the fork.

STUDENT DESIGN CHALLENGE

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See the award-winning work of the 2016 Sherwin-Williams STIR® Student Design Challenge winners.

#SWStir Have a question, comment or idea related to STIR? Just include the hashtag #SWStir when you share in your social channel of choice, and join the conversation!

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RESIDENTIAL PROJECT

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LIVABLE LUXE Don’t let its elegant palette fool you: The kitchen in this Virginia Colonial is designed for living.

COLOR SCIENCE

DON’T MAKE COLOR DECISIONS AT SUNSET

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Color perception changes throughout the day. Here’s what you need to know.

FINAL TOUCH

IDEAS TO LIKE, SHARE AND FAVORITE

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COLORchips WHAT'S NEW FROM SHERWIN-WILLIAMS

+ ColorSnap Visualizer: New Pinterest Integration Every pin has a palette! Finding colors and collaborating with clients just got easier.

Our newly enhanced ColorSnap Visualizer is now seamlessly integrated with Pinterest, allowing you to explore and find colors in a pin by just tapping your mobile device. It’s a great way to exchange ideas with clients and explore color.

Other new ColorSnap Visualizer updates provide: Color organized in-app the same way it is in-store. The new digital color wall in-app matches the in-store experience, organizing color by family to make navigating color selection even more intuitive.

The power to paint a room shot more quickly. Thanks to fresh features and shortcuts, it’s easier than ever to apply color to a room shot using the Magic Wand.

The ability to compare color day vs. night. Using our new 3-D room scenes, you can get a more realistic assessment of your color choices by toggling between day and night views.

Learn more and download at swcolorsnap.com.

CREATE SPECS QUICKLY WITH It’s the perfect tool to quickly and easily create a 3-part CSI construction product specification.

By simply clicking through a decision tree interface and selecting the right product system for the job, you can create custom specs in seconds. It’s this easy:

1 Select a category: either interior, exterior, or highperformance coatings 2 Choose the substrate

3 Select your preferred paint type 4 Finally, select from the available paint systems (including options for multiple sheens)

5 Download your specs as a Word, WP, or RTF file

Only products that meet your project criteria will populate, ensuring that you select the right products for your project. Product systems include the properly paired primer and topcoats.

Visit swspecexpress.com to try it today. If you need more specific information on a particular product, refer to the current Sherwin-Williams Painting Systems Catalog or the swspecs.com website, or call 800-321-8194.

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Introducing Paint Shield™: The Paint With the Power to Kill Bacteria This revolutionary new product provides your clients with an important tool to help prevent the spread of harmful bacteria on painted surfaces.

Sherwin-Williams Paint Shield™ Microbicidal Paint is the first EPA-registered microbial paint that kills greater than 99.9 percent of staph (Staphylococcus aureus), MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), E. coli (Escherichia coli), VRE (Vancomycinresistant Enterococcus faecalis) and Enterobacter aerogenes on painted surfaces.

Paint Shield represents the culmination of extensive research and collaboration between Sherwin-Williams coatings scientists and microbiologists. The exclusive patented technology in Paint Shield can help prevent the spread of some of the most harmful bacteria within two hours of exposure.

“Paint Shield not only helps prevent the spread of these harmful bacteria on the painted surface, it also features all the appearance and qualities designers and their clients expect from Sherwin-Williams,” says Steve Revnew, senior vice president of product innovation, Sherwin-Williams.

Paint Shield Microbicidal Paint is a smart choice for:

THE EXCLUSIVE PATENTED TECHNOLOGY IN PAINT SHIELD CAN HELP PREVENT THE SPREAD OF SOME HARMFUL BACTERIA.

• Healthcare settings and senior care communities • Athletic facilities, schools and daycare • Hospitality settings and cruise ships • Residential housing Learn more at swpaintshield.com.

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COLOR chips

Finally, a Truly Flat Finish That’s Also Cleanable If you and your clients love flat finishes, you can go with these solutions to gain washability and other performance benefits.

It’s the first-ever truly flat finish that has excellent washability — and it’s now available in Emerald™ and Duration Home® Interior paints, thanks to new SherwinWilliams technology.

Unlike other paints that claim to offer a washable flat finish, the new, advanced finish for Emerald and Duration Home is truly flat and cleanable. It offers the same exceptional washability, durability and burnish resistance of the matte and glossier sheens. Both paints also feature anti-microbial agents that inhibit the growth of mold and mildew on the paint surface.

Choose Your Cleanable Flat Finish Both Emerald Interior and Duration Home Interior paints are available in cleanable flat finishes in all Sherwin-Williams colors and custom tints. Dark and vibrant colors are easily achieved with the same trusted performance and exceptional hide.

Emerald Interior Acrylic Latex Paint • Advanced stain-blocking technology that creates a beautiful, smooth, long-lasting finish, with remarkable hide and application characteristics • Outstanding resistance to scrubbing, stains, blocking and water spotting • Meets the most stringent VOC regulations, is backed by a limited lifetime warranty and has achieved GREENGUARD GOLD Certification Duration Home • Ideal for high-traffic areas • Features exclusive cross-linking technology that actually repels stains • Most stains wipe clean with water or mild soap, with no color rub-off and less visible shine after washing • Goes on smoothly and quickly and offers excellent hide

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RED REVIVAL A seedy San Francisco movie palace wins a second act and loudly announces it to the neighborhood.

THEATER IMAGES © SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL LLP | BRUCE DAMONTE, 2016. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

b y A LY S S A F O R D

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J

ust three short years ago, the historic Strand Theater in San Francisco was boarded up, collapsing, occupied by squatters, and littered with broken bottles. The once-grand film house, worn down by years of poverty and decay, was just a breath away from being condemned and swept away at the end of a bulldozer.

But when architect Michael Duncan toured the structure, he saw something far more. “We walked onto the small stage and I thought, ‘My God, this is fantastic,’” says Duncan, design director at the San Francisco office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM).

Enlisted by American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) to stage the building’s transformation, Duncan immediately saw what had first caught the eye of A.C.T. scouts: The old Strand had incredible bones, wonderful historic details and the ability to unload from the alley right onto stage level, a big plus for stagehands. Duncan set to work remaking The Strand into a second stage for one of the most influential theater companies in the U.S. A.C.T. is an acclaimed institution, its Tony Award-winning Conservatory having trained the likes of Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, Elizabeth Banks, Nicolas Cage, Winona Ryder and Chris Pine.

GLAMOUR TO GRIT AND BACK AGAIN A.C.T. has been a part of San Francisco since the Age of Aquarius, but the history of The Strand goes back much further. When the theater debuted in 1917, The Strand was called The Jewel, so-named for its marquee’s cut-glass rotating ball that scattered reflected light on amazed passersby. Early San Francisco cinephiles sat in plush walnut chairs and took in silent films with live orchestral accompaniment.

In 1929, the theater was one of the first to screen “talkies” in the Bay Area. But

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as the Market Street area fell into decline, The Strand and other venues along the entertainment corridor grew sketchy. By 1977, the Strand was a grindhouse theater showing all-day B-movies for a buck and midnight screenings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” In 1999, it was converted into an adult theater and, four years later, the San Francisco Police Department closed the place down for good after a narcotics sting.

Duncan shied away from none of it. He had the 1917 decorative grilles and historic cast-stone details restored. Other defining elements were preserved. The previous owner donated the 1959 marquee, now rewired with fresh bands of pink neon. Even some of the graffiti was saved: A backstage wall still says “Junkies for Life” in big, spray-painted letters. Local color, you know.

To ready the 20,000-square-foot Strand for a live theater company, Duncan retained the original footprint but exploded the I-shaped building from the inside out, removing the crumbling onyx staircase and opening the lobby to two full stories. The new jewel is the lobby’s 200-square-foot Luxmax screen made up of 126 individual panels, a rotating mirror ball for the 21st century. Before The Strand, Luxmax LED screens of this size and capability had only been used for high-production concerts such as Justin Bieber, Lady Antebellum and Maroon 5.

One of the most complicated questions was color. Some voices wanted the new theater returned to its historic white or yellow-beige. Duncan was thinking far bolder. He argued for a hue that would pop against the green glass of the Thom Maynedesigned Federal Building, something that would catch eyeballs and, in Duncan’s words, “vibrate at night.” The team created a sexy custom mix that falls somewhere between ruby and mandarin, tinting it slightly darker for inside versus outside.

“I wanted a red that was neither orange nor brick. In my mind it’s kind of

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“

I WANTED A RED THAT WAS NEITHER ORANGE NOR BRICK. IN MY MIND IT’S KIND OF A CONSTRUCTIVIST RED. I WANTED IT TO BE A LITTLE RACY AND VIVACIOUS.

“

— Michael Duncan, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

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A SAN FRANCISCO FEAT A.C.T.’s new playhouse glows red-orange on the inside and out. Artistic Director Carey Perloff says she was won over by the custom cinnabar hue — informally dubbed “A.C.T. Red” — because it reminded her of the rich vermilion on the Golden Gate Bridge. “That color is very San Francisco,” says Perloff.

The famous landmark is painted “Golden Gate Bridge International Orange,” architect Irving Morrow’s pick to contrast with the Marin headlands’ ochre and the Golden Gate Strait’s sun-dappled waters.

The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District received so many requests for the paint color that it finally posted the formula on its website: 0 percent Cyan, 69 percent Magenta, 100 percent Yellow and 6 percent Black. The bridge captain generally suggests people just go for Sherwin-Williams Fireweed (SW 6328), the closest off-the-shelf color.

To keep the bridge in saturated style, an army of 28 painters, five painter-laborers and a chief continuously repaint the massive structure, using up to 10,000 gallons of Sherwin-Williams coatings each year to touch up 10 million square feet of steel and 1.7 miles of cable. The paint is mixed off-site and shipped to the bridge as needed.

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COLOR: Custom reds throughout Select interior walls and trim: SW 6258 Tricorn Black COATINGS: Exterior (stucco): Loxon® Concrete & Masonry Primer ConFlex™ XL High-Build Coating Resilience® Exterior Acrylic Latex Interior Walls: ProMar® 200 Zero VOC Interior Latex Paint Interior Metal Finishes: Pro Industrial™ Pro-Cryl® Universal Acrylic Primer Sher-Cryl™ High Performance Acrylic

a constructivist red,” says Duncan. “I wanted it to be a little racy and vivacious.”

The exterior expression began with Loxon® Concrete & Masonry Primer, which seals, conditions and masks imperfections.

Atop the primer went ConFlex™ XL HighBuild Elastomeric Coating that protects from water penetration and will not trap the moisture vapor inside.

According to SOM architect Aaron Jensen, who assisted Duncan, “The gray tint of the ConFlex also significantly improved the color saturation of the final two coats of the custom-tinted Sherwin-Williams Resilience [Exterior Paint with Moisture Guard™ technology], which was critical in getting the vibrant red color we were after.” An added benefit: Resilience meets California’s strict exterior VOC requirements.

Inside the Toni Rembe Theater, the

zero VOC content and durability of ProMar 200 was appealing. The custom red was tinted just slightly darker for the walls so as not to distract patrons during performances, and a touch less saturated on the ceiling to deflect light bouncing from the stage. The red is its own show.

“When you come in, you’re in this bright white lobby, but as you look ahead, you see a hint of the red on the walls of the box office,” says Duncan.

“As you turn the corner — bam! — you’re in this all-red, super-saturated theater.”

Just goes to show: Actors aren’t the only ones with a flair for the dramatic.

The once-tawdry Strand has staged a major comeback, thanks in part to its chromatic costume change.

Alyssa Ford is a shelter-industry writer and frequent STIR contributor.

LOCAL COLOR A.C.T.’s Strand Theater isn’t the only place in The Bay inspired by the Golden Gate Bridge’s hue.

• The International Orange House, a funky residence in the Bernal Heights neighborhood, is owned by Golden Gate Bridge enthusiast Todd Lappin. He painted his entire exterior in Sherwin-Williams Fireweed (SW 6328).

• Glassybaby, a glass studio and hot shop in the Madrona neighborhood, sells an International Orange votive, with 10 percent of the profits going to San Francisco charities.

• California-based nail polish company OPI noted the bridge’s 75th anniversary in 2013 with a vibrant red-orange shade dubbed “Hot Date at the Golden Gate.”

• Walkways and major signs at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park are painted a rusty-red orange after the bridge.

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COLOR technology

HOW TO DELIVER TRUE COLOR TO YOUR CLIENTS Simple tips to help you improve your understanding of color performance in the paint — ultimately allowing you to deliver more accurate, consistent hues to your clients’ projects.

Q.

• When creating a specification, how can you ensure the color sample you’re using will ultimately match the final tinted paint?

• How can you be confident the color in the first gallon of paint applied on a job site matches the final gallon applied?

• How can you get custom color matches to be as true as possible to the swatch or sample you’re working from?

THE ANSWERS TO ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS come down to two things: color accuracy and color consistency. They’re two sides of the same coin, and knowing the right things to look for from your paint and coatings provider is the best way to ensure you can deliver color excellence to your clients.

“First of all, you want to be sure you’re working with paint products, colors and color formulas that are all designed to work as an integrated system,” says Sue Wadden, director of color marketing at Sherwin-Williams.

For example, color formulas should be programmed to flex subtly and precisely depending on the product and finish combination you specify, ensuring the most accurate color result in the final tinted paint.

Another tip: Avoid working with paint providers that use third-party manufacturing.

“The paint manufacturer should control its own manufacturing and quality,” says Steve Revnew, senior vice president of product innovation at Sherwin-Williams. “That includes the colorant it uses to tint its paint.”

When paint providers turn to third parties to manufacture base products or colorants, the color results in the final tinted paint can show wider variances.

Ultimately, color accuracy and consistency are a lot like cooking: Success depends on trained experts and repeatable systems. When you work with a paint and coatings provider that has the human and technical expertise to manage color accuracy and consistency at every stage — product design, quality manufacturing, color formula management, final tinting — you radically reduce the possibility of color issues on the job site.

“Ask a contractor,” Revnew says. “They’re the ones who have experience with gallon-to-gallon color consistency and reliable color touchups.”

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INTRODUCING COLORSNAP® PRECISION When you specify Sherwin-Williams, your designs are powered by ColorSnap Precision, our exclusive system for ensuring exceptional color accuracy and consistency in the paint.

ColorSnap provides you with: • Color samples engineered to match the final tinted paint • Paints and colorants designed as an interlocked system • Consistent gallon-to-gallon color delivery via our 4,000-plus locations • State-of-the-art technology to precision match custom colors • Real-time color formula updates To learn more, contact your local Designer or Architectural Account Executive, or call our Information Line at 800-321-8194.

ColorSnap color selection tools are available both online and in-store. Visit swcolorsnap.com to learn more.

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ULTIMATELY, COLOR ACCURACY AND CONSISTENCY ARE A LOT LIKE COOKING: SUCCESS DEPENDS ON TRAINED EXPERTS AND REPEATABLE SYSTEMS.

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The state of color has never been more restless.

New spirituality, cultural flux, feisty self-expression and soulful nostalgia are combining to paint an emerging portrait of our shared future.

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS DIRECTOR OF COLOR MARKETING SUE WADDEN SAYS “Dramatic lighting really helped to capture that essential, moody stillness that is Noir.”

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GET COLORMIX COLORS DOWNLOAD

DESIGN

ORDER

these colors into virtual design tools at swcolor.com.

with these colors using our ColorSnap® tools at swcolor.com.

a colormix color deck or large-size color samples at myS-W.com.

noir It’s among our most precious commodities: night. We’re craving a refuge from urban streetlights and glowing screens, space to turn our gaze inward and recharge the spirit. Mindful melancholy is fueling a new romanticism marked by medieval patterns, revived customs and bittersweet beauty. The Dutch masters knew the secret: dark hues set a dramatic stage for sensuous luster. This palette is rich with vine-ripe fruits, Nordic blues, moody neutrals and golden yellows.

SW 9179

SW 6286

SW 6395

SW 6526

SW 6039

ANCHORS AWEIGH

MATURE GRAPE

ALCHEMY

ICELANDIC

POISED TAUPE

SW 9185

SW 6279

SW 7623

SW 7076

SW 6259

MAREA BAJA

BLACK SWAN

CASCADES

CYBERSPACE

SPATIAL WHITE

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holistic Sustainable design and radical transparency are the new standards. As our daily transactions move further into the cloud, acquiring experiences is becoming preferable to buying more things. “Doing good” is the new looking good, and it’s taking the form of “voluntourism,” healing retreats and eco-travel. We’re in pursuit of an elusive ideal: a fair luxury. The roads of this journey are lined with arctic neutrals, blush rose and wild browns.

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SUE SAYS “It was important to bring a slightly 1970s vibe into this set. The hanging chair hit just the right note.”

SW 6224

SW 6332

SW 7571

SW 7710

SW 0034

MOUNTAIN AIR

CORAL ISLAND

CASA BLANCA

BRANDYWINE

ROYCROFT ROSE

SW 9138

SW 9170

SW 7605

SW 0014

STARDEW

ACIER

GALE FORCE

SHERATON SAGE

SW 9175 DEEP FOREST BROWN

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intrepid The virtual and the real are blurring in the form of seamless commerce and “office anywhere” collaboration. Impatient for social and political change, we’re reinventing ourselves first. Identity has never been more fluid. “You do you” is the mantra of a generation primed for self-expression, cheered on by their own #squad and tossing aside old categories. There’s a feisty energy to our present moment, arriving in fiery tones and vibrant, kimono colors.

SUE SAYS “Intrepid means fearless. The sharp angles in this vignette set have that brave spirit.”

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SW 6990

SW 6816

SW 9020

SW 6621

SW 6915

CAVIAR

DAHLIA

RAYO DE SOL

EMOTIONAL

CITRONELLA

SW 6839 KIMONO VIOLET

SW 7757 HIGH REFLECTIVE WHITE

SW 6656

SW 7598

SW 6071

SERAPE

SIERRA REDWOOD

POPULAR GRAY

GLOBAL COLOR FORECAST TEAM The Sherwin-Williams Global Color Forecast Team has over 100 years of combined industry experience.

Left to right: Carol Derov manages color marketing for Latin America.

Sue Wadden is director of color marketing. Patricia Fecci, marketing manager for Brazil, manages two design studios. Karrie Hodge is a senior designer and new residential construction specialist. Not pictured: Michael Plank, director of color marketing services, and Brian Martin, color marketing manager for the Global Finishes Group.

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unbounded Global immigration is redefining borderlands, national identity and our sense of coexistence. We’re all citizens of the world now. Brands are becoming more purpose-driven, communities more connected. Design is adapting to more diverse populations. Overconsumption is, well, over. We’re more likely to invest in the best we can afford — crafted and customized — and then keep it forever. Global consciousness is a mural painted in earthy mustards, ocean blues, corals and mud.

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SW 9113

SW 7675

SW 6606

SW 6419

SW 6384

MUDSLIDE

SEALSKIN

CORAL REEF

SAGUARO

CUT THE MUSTARD

SW 6774

SW 6683

SW 6608

SW 6790

SW 9101

FRESHWATER

BEE

RAVE RED

ADRIATIC SEA

TRES NATURALE

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SUE SAYS “In this vignette, we really wanted to play up a bold color.

Coral Reef (SW 6606) comes through loud and clear.”

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COLORconversation

PRIMA PÂTISSIÈRE Maggie Austin creates colorful cakes for royalty

and Hollywood stars. Learn how she constructs her delicate artworks before they fall to the fork.

Inspired by the 2017 Sherwin-Williams color forecast, this cake’s delicate flowers are made from sugar.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JENNIFER HUGHES

by SUSAN DIETRICH

A career-ending injury left ballet dancer Maggie Austin with nothing to fall back on, so she took one more leap: pastry school. Following a stint at legendary Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, a website showcasing her work went viral in 2010.

Within two weeks, she was on NBC’s Today show.

Now, from a studio in Alexandria, Virginia, she accepts no more than two cake orders a month, at $8,000 minimum plus expenses. Austin can spend a week traveling across the world to personally deliver and set up each cake.

Pastry is a principal branch of architecture, according to Antonin Caréme, father of French cuisine. Your “bricks and mortar” are the cake tiers stacked on top of each other. What other materials do you use to create your magic?

Sugar and color! My cakes, mostly wedding cakes, are draped with fondant, a sugar dough that’s rolled out almost thinner than is possible. It’s a canvas only, not for flavor. To form flowers I use sugar gum paste, which dries permanently. Both can be colored or painted with FDA-approved food gels or powders, including metallics and glitter. There’s no limit to the spectrum or saturation. Flavor is another dimension, but for my purposes, it’s irrelevant to my color choices.

Where do you get your color inspiration?

Mostly from clients, event planners and/or editors, but I push their imaginations so it’s not all matchy-matchy. Color is also about light. My sister and partner, Jessica Rapier, has an MFA in theater lighting design. We seriously consider the lighting for each event. We display cakes on stands and position them carefully so they float in the surrounding light. I keep the light in mind when mixing colors, too. Like paint, the colors change after they set up, but, unlike paint, they can continue to change over time and in varying temperatures and humidity. Experience is the only way to learn how to accommodate all those variables.

It’s not surprising that a dancer would be all about movement, and you do animate your cakes with precariously placed flowers, overly extended vines and your signature layers

of frills. How do you use color to accentuate this movement?

I use flat color only for background. I heighten intense color with contrast colors. I just follow my instincts. I carve my own molds for unique shapes and textures that play with light and shadow. A single frill around a cake was nothing new, but I overlap lots of them up the side, often in gently ombréd hues. For my Tiffany lamp-style cakes I repeatedly layer on color and then remove some, even most, of it until it appears to glow from within.

CULTURE HAS A HUGE IMPACT ON COLOR CHOICE. IN JAPAN, CLIENTS ARE DRAWN TO SOFTER PASTELS. BY CONTRAST, INDIAN WEDDINGS ARE AN ABSOLUTE RIOT OF SATURATION. Your clientele is international. How do different cultures use color to celebrate?

Culture has a huge impact on color choice. In Japan, clients are drawn to softer pastels. By contrast, Indian weddings are an absolute riot of saturation.

You still have a dancer’s obsessive pursuit of perfection. What’s it like to be a prima pâtissière on a new stage?

Part of the reason I love what I do is that I have the chance to participate in celebrations all over the world. But once everything is perfect with the cake, I make a graceful exit before anyone arrives.

Writer Susan Dietrich is also a graphic designer and pastry chef.

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2016 WINNING PORTFOLIOS Meet the winners of our sixth-annual Sherwin-Williams STIR® Student Design Challenge

®

Hundreds of talented students from top design programs competed in this year’s STIR Student Design Challenge.

“I’m totally impressed. We saw so many inventive, clever designs. And such strong, thoughtful uses of color,” said Sue Wadden, director of color marketing at Sherwin-Williams, and first-time judge of the Student Design Challenge. Joining Wadden on the judging panel was Elizabeth Holmes, owner of Elizabeth Holmes Design, and Melanie Castillo, Technical Designer at Gensler.

In each category, first-place winners received a $2,500 cash prize, second-place winners received $1,000, and third-place winners received $500.

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1ST PLACE Residential

CONCEPT: This modern loft renovation,

DESIGNER:

designed for newlyweds John and Mark, captures this exciting new phase of their lives

Tyson Baker

together. This carefully curated color palette

SCHOOL:

combines five Sherwin-Williams colors that bring cohesion to the entire interior, revitalizes

Maryville

the space, and provides the clients with the

University

start of something new.

KINGDOM GOLD SW 6698

ALEUTIAN SW 6241

FOGGY DAY SW 6235

NAVAL SW 6244

ICICLE SW 6238

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1ST PLACE Commercial

DESIGNER: Jenny Campbell SCHOOL: Kwantlen Polytechnic University

GLITZY GOLD SW 6691

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CONCEPT: Fentons legal firm was looking to maintain the appearance of stature and prestige while progressing their own vision of a dynamic and forward thinking firm. That concept was the heart of the project and used to carve provocative and contemporary contrast into collegial gothic design elements.

WALL STREET SW 7665

ANCHORS AWEIGH SW 9179

HIGH REFLECTIVE WHITE SW 7757

TRICORN BLACK SW 6258

2ND PLACE Residential

3RD PLACE Residential DESIGNERS:

Allison Antosh, Daniela Varela & Sarah Laffitte

DESIGNER:

Anna Nicholson SCHOOL:

SCHOOL: University

Radford University

of Bridgeport

SURF GREEN SW 6473

HIGH REFLECTIVE WHITE SW 7757

DOVER WHITE SW 6385

FILMY GREEN SW 6190

UNDERSEAS SW 6214

ALABASTER SW 7008

WATERSCAPE SW 6470

2ND PLACE Commercial DESIGNERS:

FLOWER POT SW 6334

HAZEL SW 6471

COMPOSED SW 6472

3RD PLACE Commercial DESIGNER:

Michelle Cruz & Kate Heiser

Michaela Murphy SCHOOL: Anderson

SCHOOL: Iowa

University

State University

FRONT PORCH SW 7651

JALAPEÑO SW 6629

COOLED BLUE SW 6759

LIME RICKEY SW 6717

OSAGE ORANGE SW 6890

ROCK CANDY SW 6231

PROPER GRAY SW 6003

FOGGY DAY SW 6235

REFUGE SW 6228

DUTCH TILE BLUE SW 0031

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LIVABLE LUXE Don’t let its elegant palette fool you: The kitchen in this newly constructed Williamsburg, Virginia, Colonial is designed for living.

by KITTY SHEA

“Ninety-five percent of my clients come to me with a picture off HGTV.com or Pinterest, and it’s your typical white kitchen: white marble countertops and white subway tile backsplashes,” says designer Kathryn Salyer of Williamsburg, Virginia. Salyer’s command of kitchen design, and her subsequent care and handling of the familiar white request, helps her recognize that, as she says, “What clients are really falling in love with is the bright, clean look.”

Take, for example, this kitchen, which won Salyer second place in the Thermador Kitchen Design Challenge, and a happy client. (“It’s not that it’s not white,” says the client. “I have white cabinets!”)

The client and her husband initially contacted Salyer for one-off feedback on their custom home’s untraditional layout: no formal living or dining rooms. The home, built

by Cartwright Construction, is a brick, center-foyer Colonial located in a Williamsburg gated community.

Parents to a 5- and a 7-year-old, he’s a business owner, she’s a vice president of sales and they both frequently travel internationally for work, spurring their desire for open, usable space that supports time at home as a family.

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To Salyer, “open floor plan” meant few walls for cabinets. The solution: her signature large island with storage aplenty and space for daily dining.

Since Salyer dismisses the kitchen work triangle as old school anyway, she designed using zones, keeping the refrigerator close enough, yet out of the cooking zone, anchoring it on the end nearest the living space.

Salyer is a firm believer in living real. Trips to New York to pick out lavish fabrics were eschewed for usable materials selected for the long term. “We live in houses.

I don’t care how big your house is or how much money you have, it’s figuring out how we live and want to live,” she says. “That’s my absolute fundamental mantra.

I want to be able to throw a dog in the kitchen sink and spray it off, if need be.”

That belief in durability extended into Salyer’s coatings choices. She had the walls painted with ProMar 200® Zero VOC Interior Latex Paint in flat finish and the trim CABINETS AND TRIM SW 7008 Alabaster PAINT: ProClassic® Interior Waterbased Acrylic-Alkyd (semi-gloss) Cabinets: SHER-WOOD® Catalyzed Lacquer WALLS SW 7037 Balanced Beige PAINT: ProMar® 200 Zero VOC Interior Latex Paint (flat)

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRAIG DAVENPORT/ARC IMAGING

IT’S A FORM OF TRANSLATION FIT FOR A DIPLOMAT: listening to what clients say they want and then revealing to them what they actually want. As any experienced residential designer knows, “I want a white kitchen” can mean many different things.

SW 7008 Alabaster

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in ProClassic® Interior Water based Acrylic-Alkyd in semi-gloss.

“I really like the zero VOC option [in ProMar 200] when I'm working in a home that has children, and ProClassic has a nice smooth texture for trim,” Salyer says of her coatings choices.

As a mom whose three kids are in or approaching their 20s, Salyer’s concept of “family time” conjures memories of science-project volcanoes in the middle of the kitchen and, subsequently, the need for durable materials that don’t easily mar. “One of the things I bring to the table — I hate to say this — is that I’m a little older and have raised my kids,” says Salyer.

Salyer’s experience and wisdom were also valuable assets when it came to picking out the project’s color palette. Salyer didn’t believe her clients should have to repaint or reinvest in furniture — the foundationals, as Salyer calls them — until their kids were graduating high school. So, rather than going with a too-trendy palette, Salyer eased the interior scheme toward more studied nuance.

Salyer guided the client to walls in Balanced Beige (SW 7037) and cabinets and trim in Alabaster (SW 7008), the SherwinWilliams 2016 color of the year. It’s one of Salyer’s go-to colors. “Alabaster isn’t stark white. It’s not cold white. It has a touch of warmth but doesn’t commit to beige or off-white, so it’s not muddy or dirty or dingy; it’s still very clean,” she says.

If it’s on the kitchen cabinets, Salyer insists on applying it throughout the house, so Alabaster is carried across all of the home’s crown molding, wainscoting, columns, window trim and casings. “I don’t like to mix those colors,” she says. “I hate for a piece of crown molding to move into the side of a cabinet and be different.”

“Grays are very popular right now,” Salyer says, “but they read cool.” By using fresh fabrics that are pertinent today but can be easily updated, “we kept the kitchen on-trend. We went with a palette that’s cool but not too gray, warm but not golden.

Golden tends to be a little old-ladyish, and gold has been done and done and done. This is a very Colonial area, remember.”

When restlessness sets in, Salyer’s foundational palette will easily embrace navy, turquoise or even orange rugs, throw pillows and other “bits and pieces of trendy,” the designer says.

The homeowner says it’s just what she wanted: white but with depth, dimension and hominess. And so held Salyer’s wisdom: “What clients are really falling in love with is the bright, clean look.” It’s as if Salyer knew how to translate exactly what her client was asking for all along.

STIR editor Kitty Shea is a longtime shelter industry writer.

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BLACK AND BLUE BEAUTY

“

According to Harrison-Ciacchi, “Everybody thinks that blue and black isn’t a good color combination.

WHAT CLIENTS ARE REALLY FALLING IN LOVE WITH IS THE BRIGHT, CLEAN LOOK. — Designer Kathryn Salyer

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COL ch e scienc OLOR OR te

Don’t Make

COLOR DECISIONS

at Sunset Color perception changes throughout the day.

Here’s what you need to know about the sun’s changing influence.

IS THAT WALL YELLOW, BEIGE OR TAN? Depending on the time of day, it could be any of the three.

As the angle and intensity of the sun shift, the wavelengths reflected from the objects around us shift along with them. In order for design professionals to accurately account for these subtle but constant changes, it helps to understand what our eyes and brains are doing when they process color.

Human beings are what’s called “diurnal,” which means our eyes have evolved to see better during the day than night.

Over the course of a day, your brain spends a lot of time sorting through light waves, assessing so-called “chromatic bias” to figure out what color you’re really observing.

According to Bevil Conway, associate professor of neuroscience at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, “Every natural light source has a chromatic bias, and the brain is surprisingly good at removing this bias to determine color.”

Much better than a camera, for instance.

Morning and evening have an orange bias, while midday light under a clear sky has a blue bias. As the quality and

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angle of light changes, the brain automatically adjusts for these shifts by subtracting the prevailing bias — orange or blue in natural light — to maintain accurate color perception.

But the system isn’t perfect. Where the brain must work hardest, Conway says, is during transition periods from dawn to early morning, and from twilight and dusk to dark, when the timing of the light changes is the most rapid.

“One of the reasons our brains find sunsets so thrilling is that we can see the color biases changing,” Conway says. But if you are assessing colors in a room, these are also the times of day when the brain’s perception of color are constantly in flux and, hence, the worst times to make color decisions.

Experience does matter, though. According to Conway, the brain not only uses the immediate color data coming through the eye at any given moment, it also compares that information to a vast database of prior experience to arrive at its best color guess. Though the brain can be fooled, Conway says, its previous experience guides it toward more accurate perceptions of color in the future.

ILLUSTRATION BY TRACI DABERKO

b y TA D S I M O N S

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EVERY NATURAL LIGHT SOURCE HAS A CHROMATIC BIAS, AND THE BRAIN IS SURPRISINGLY GOOD AT REMOVING THIS BIAS TO DETERMINE COLOR.

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— Bevil Conway, Wellesley College Neuroscientist

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THE SUN’S ANGLE AND

TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR COLOR CONFIDENCE

DIRECTION, AS WELL

• The only way to be absolutely sure what a color will look like under different lighting conditions is to observe it firsthand. The sun’s angle and direction, as well as the amount and quality of artificial light, can have dramatic impact on color perception. Northernfacing rooms tend to skew blue during the day, and western-facing windows are affected most by the orange shift at sunset.

AS THE AMOUNT AND QUALITY OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT, CAN HAVE DRAMATIC IMPACT ON COLOR PERCEPTION.

• Colors appear truest in the middle of the day under indirect natural sunlight. Too much sunlight can wash them out, however, while too little (morning and evening) tends to darken them. Oranges and reds can intensify later in the day, and as the light dims, darker colors become duller and harder to distinguish.

• What we perceive as “colors” are really surfaces reflecting and absorbing various wavelengths of light.

Everything in a room can affect color perception — furniture, carpet, drapes, bookshelves — which is why a blank wall in an empty room can look dramatically different when that same room is furnished.

• Use window blinds to control the amount of direct light entering a room. While opening and closing them, pay careful attention to subtle shifts in color.

This will help you anticipate other color shifts as the light changes throughout the day.

• Like natural light, artificial light has its own color biases. Incandescent bulbs have a warm orange shift.

Fluorescent bulbs provide a cool blue light. LED light is whiter and more neutral but can also be programmed for different wavelengths and intensities, making it an increasingly popular indoor lighting option.

• Most pigments aren’t 100 percent light-stable. This means that they actually break down with prolonged light exposure, especially under UV light. So, if you have a richly colored object or painting, keep it out of direct sunlight, or put it under UV-conservation glass.

Writer Tad Simons’ favorite form of light comes directly from the fireplace.

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FINALtouch

ideas When Sherwin-Williams founder Henry Sherwin said, “What is worth doing is worth doing well,” he perfectly captured our commitment to technical innovation. As we celebrate 150 years serving design professionals, we’re already looking forward to the next 150.

color and design courses to our

SHOW OFF YOUR WORK

Sherwin-Williams Learning Center.

Earn CEU credits today at

When you tag your project photos #SWColorLove on social media, we can help you showcase them on our website. Check out any color detail page on sherwin-williams.com to see how it looks. Learn more at swcolorlove.com.

swceulearn.com.

SW

HERE’S TO 150 MORE YEARS

We’re always adding new

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EARN YOUR CEUs

WHY SPECIFYING PRODUCT MATTERS Meet residential designer Jennifer Harrison-Ciacchi, and learn why

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LIM

C K EY E RI

COLOR FACT

Why is the U.S. currency a greenback instead of a purpleback? Because when paper notes were introduced in 1929, the green inks available were the most durable and costprudent.

she specifies high-quality paint in addition to color for all of her projects. View the video at swresidentialspecs.com.

“HIGHEST IN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AMONG PAINT RETAILERS, FOUR YEARS IN A ROW AND EXTERIOR PAINTS” Sherwin-Williams received the highest numerical score for paint retailers in the J.D. Power 2013–2016 Paint Satisfaction Studies and exterior paint in the 2016 Study. 2016 based on 16,128 responses measuring experiences and perceptions of customers in the previous 12 months, surveyed in January–February 2016. Your experiences may vary. Visit jdpower.com.

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COLOR YOUR CLIENTS HAPPY. It’s easy when you use ColorSnap®, the powerful new system of integrated color tools and technology from Sherwin-Williams. No matter where you start your color journey — in-office, on-site, online or in-store — you can move back and forth intuitively between tools, ultimately making color specification quick, easy and accurate.

Discover more at swcolorsnap.com.