It"s teal next year

Get set to combine the harmony of green and the tranquillity of blue in your living spaces.

WHENEVER the Akzo Nobel ColourFutures colour of the year is announced, you can bet that the shade will fly off the shelves around the world.

According to Jeremy Rowe, managing director of Akzo Nobel Decorative Paints for South-East Asia Pacific, “The industry is aware that we have a deep passion for colours and we certainly have a good uptake of followers. Whenever we unveil a ‘future’ colour, we do see an increase in sales in that particular colour.

“Colour is a design tool kit, which is more affordable than marble and wallpaper. Our customers know that we have a credible and compelling story behind the trend and they take comfort in the security of our palettes when they sell to their clients or purchase for their own use.”

AkzoNobel is the world’s leading paint and coatings company; Malaysians will be very familiar with one of its brands, Dulux, which is manufactured by AkzoNobel Paints Malaysia (formerly known as ICI Paints Malaysia).

ColourFutures is Akzo Nobel’s on-going worldwide colour trend research that indicates design trends for interiors and exteriors over a period of 18 months. It plays a role in reflecting developments in fashion, architecture, art, design, technology and culture.

At the World Architecture Festival (WAF) held in Singapore last month, ColourFutures announced that teal is the 2014 Colour of the Year.

“Colours play a very important role in everybody’s lives. Colours are everywhere and they influence the way we feel and behave. As the global colour authority, AkzoNobel introduced ColourFutures to understand and anticipate what the trends in the future are and to map them to a colour for people around the world to incorporate into their lives in the next year,” said Rowe.

The Colour of the Year was chosen by a panel of international colour experts assembled by Akzo Nobel’s Global Aesthetic Center, and teal was “fashionably” launched at the gorgeous Gardens by the Bay, Singapore. The event coincided with Akzo Nobel coming in as the main sponsor of WAF and Inside, a world festival of interiors, for the first time.

Rowe – whose favourite colour is British racing green, by the way – added that, “Teal combines the harmony of green and the tranquillity of blue. The theme for 2014 is ‘Unlocking Potential’, where we encourage the world to harness and explore the potential found in everyday spaces – in our homes, offices, schools and even factories.”

In addition to the colour of the year, ColourFutures also identified five broad colour design trends for interior and exterior decoration, and presented palettes of complementary colours that can be used to create these trends in the places where we live, work and play. These five trends are the subtle Silent Revolution, the robust Urban Folk, the contrast in Margin of Proof, the romantic Secret Garden, and the energetic Do It Now.

C.W. Goh, managing director of Akzo Nobel Paints Malaysia, took journalists on a tour of the Akzo Nobel space at WAF and pointed out the high-tech coating technology that Akzo Nobel is famous for. Some of the exterior coating technologies on display and demonstrated included Weathershield, a premium acrylic exterior paint with Keep Cool, an energy-saving cool solution with proven energy savings of up to 15% a year; Flexishield, with crack bridging capability and waterproofing property, among other properties; and Hydroscreen, with superb water repellency, excellent water vapour and CO2 permeability, microbial attack resistance, outstanding weatherability and excellent durability.

Akzo Nobel’s interior coating technologies include Light Space, the paint with Lumitec technology that reflects up to twice as much light, thus lighting up a room more efficiently; and Wash Wear, with its new KidProof Technology, a premium interior emulsion that delivers optimum washability.

With technologies such as these, almost every Dulux colour is “green”.

Goh explained, “Sustainability covers the entire value chain of our business and we are also listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.”

According to Goh, their strongest partners are architects and also the younger generation of dealers, whom he credits as “already environmentally-conscious”.

AkzoNobel looks set to continue this trend of providing complete solutions, colour leadership as well as product sustainability and functionability. Till next year, we look forward to the next unveiling and more innovations.

It"s teal next year