Dunn-Edwards Releases its Color and Design Trend Report: Simply 2013

LOS ANGELES (June 7, 2012) Dunn-Edwards Paints^® has released its color and design trend report, Simply Renaissance 2013, highlighting not only the key colors, textures and designs we'll be seeing next year, but offering insight about how our culture and social climate drives these trends. Sara McLean, color expert and blogger at specs+spaces^®, says that the color palette for 2013 is brighter and happier, with yellow or yellow undertones permeating. She points out that we're experiencing a modern renaissance - a movement brought on by a period of pessimism and nostalgia for the mid-20th century, while new scientific discoveries, inventions, massive changes to the American landscape and innovations in medicine, art and politics permeate. This Re-naissance 2013 is bringing about four key color and design trends: Simply Re-invented, Simply Re-newal, Simply Re-imagined and Simply Re-vival.

Simply Re-invented is inspired by the 19th century industrial age and emerges as somewhat more utilitarian and mechanically-inclined design. Designers are seeing this revolution as part of the reduce-reuse-recycle movement, and will be using metals that age gracefully, rust and corrosion, copper, charred and burnt finishes, and crystals and semi-precious stones. Terms like “archeological chic,” “extreme salvage” and wild west adobe chic” fall into this trend. “It's as if showing flaws is a good thing,” McLean explained. “It's embracing imperfections as symbols of individuality and personality while moving forward creatively, pursuing new designs with relish.”

This color palette combines industrial metallic finishes with lacquered brights - cool, iron grays, salvage metal rusted colors and industrial red and gold.

Simply Re-newal reflects a world of blissful innocence not yet affected by global strife, and focuses on a truthful and honest lifestyle. “It's our desire to reinvent and redefine ourselves, coupled with a restrained luxury and just a touch of glamour,” she said. “We'll see this look in contemplative and calm, rural and romantic design. Taking a hint of nature in low country Southern living.” This color palette mixes whitened maple, apple and moss green with the misted, impressionistic pastel levels of peach, shell and lemon. Grays and tinted neutrals integrate neatly within the palette, though almost ghostly in appearance, and threads of color appear in fabrics, wall coverings and carpeting. Designs will incorporate thatched roofs, home spas, plank siding and driftwood, rooftop nests (i.e. urban rooftop gardens) and plenty of mirrors to reflect light and color.

Simply Re-imagined evokes images of far off realities that give us a desire to run away. The wild escape is an answer to our nomadic imagination. Think Bohemian, multicultural and retro technology. “We'll see a great return of textiles, rich brocades, soft edges of ikat, plaiting, damask, jacquards, mixing classic skills and new media. Mismatching items such as jewelry, clothing and furniture bring an order to the chaos around us, with no thought given to the mix. This will be a robust color palette, with saturated mid-tones conveying a sunny and optimistic attitude,” McLean said. “A circus atmosphere is re-imagined with brights of orange, green, yellow and turquoise, layered over the deeper, mysterious nighttime colors of teal and gray.”

Simply Re-vival is a rebirth of mid-century modernism simmering in the Southwest. Resort lifestyle with a thrill of nostalgia and memories of travels and places. Bold in color and brash in execution, this trend takes inspiration from the Bauhaus movement, California mid-century design and the 1980s Memphis design movements, reinterpreting each in a haphazard and playful fashion.

“We'll see communities giving life to tired buildings and thus attracting a new crowd of hipsters. High-class kitsch accessories and art will be popular, and traditional Native American designs will be reinterpreted in new dimensions and color ways. The color palette uses desert landscape as inspiration beyond sand and sage, including pink, red and pale yellow.”

For the complete Simply 2013 trends report, with images, color palettes and design checklists, click here or visit www.specsspaces.com