Predicting the range of colours that consumers will find the most desirable in the coming season is important for many industries such as fashion, automotive, textile and interior design. This process of “colour forecasting” or selecting colour for your product range that appeals to the majority of your consumers has little accessible literature in the public domain. This book addresses that shortfall.
This book investigates the colour forecasting process with an emphasis on the fashion and textiles industries. It is targeted towards undergraduate students studying fashion, design or textile courses but it is also accessible to the interested reader. The authors have a good reputation in the subject area and are actively teaching the methods outlined in this book to design and fashion students.
Dr Tracy Diane is a lecturer of Fashion Marketing at the Hollings Campus of Manchester Metropolitan University and Tom Cassidy is a Professor of Design at the University of Leeds. The authors have combined research interests spanning colour forecasting, design processes, design technology and design management.
The book is divided into seven main chapters and also includes an introduction and a foreword. Professor Edward Newton, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, has written the foreword and explains that the book is the result of research conducted by the authors.
The Introduction defines colour forecasting and outlines the objectives of the book. It also provides chapter summaries that are useful for those readers wishing to use the book as a reference.
Chapter 1 provides a brief overview of fashion forecasting and the driving forces of fashion over the time period 1700‐2000. This chapter explores the development of the fashion and textile industry in northern Europe and America from the beginning of the industrial revolution through to present day and all in 24 pages! The chapter focuses on the main events that influenced fashion throughout this historical period mentioning social influences, manufacturing, colour and retailing.
The second chapter, “The views of forecasters and trend information users”, introduces the terminology used by colour forecasters within the industry. The reader is introduced to the colour‐forecasting methodology and processes used by the commercial colour forecaster. A description of forecasting skills and key aspects of the process are introduced. This includes a description of colour cycles, staple colours and fashion colours, colour precision and colour communication, and colour memory. There is an emphasis on the importance of colour forecasting to the fashion industry.
The third chapter, “Colour knowledge”, is intended to give the reader a brief overview of the history of colour and the science of colour. Light, human colour vision, additive and subtractive colour mixing, colour schemes and colour terminology are all discussed. The role of the colour wheel, the understanding of colour composition and colour schemes essential to the compilation of colour stories are emphasised.
The fourth chapter introduces the colour forecasting process and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the current process. Colour and the supply chain are discussed and the effectiveness of the current model is evaluated. The responsibility for colour direction is discussed and a model of the current forecasting process is presented. The authors then propose an “improved model for the colour forecasting process”. Commercial colour forecasters were presented with this proposed colour‐forecasting model and asked for their views. The significant results of this survey of professional colour forecasters are outlined.
The fifth chapter introduces the tools available to the colour forecaster. The process is outlined in greater detail, including its strengths and weaknesses. The emphasis in this chapter is to help the reader gain an insight into more subjective methods of colour forecasting such as intuition, inspiration and anticipation.
The sixth chapter, “Colour story development and presentation”, looks further into the methodology and application of the colour forecasting process. Mood boards, colour range development, thought processes including reasoning and decision making are introduced and applied using a series of suggested workshops.
The seventh chapter, “The future of colour forecasting”, briefly describes future research focussing on the consumer and the emotional perception of colour and provides a summary of colour forecasting.
The book is clearly presented with coloured summary panels at the beginning and end of each chapter. In this respect it conforms to what you'd expect from a textbook. In addition to this there are highlighted workshop activities that are extremely relevant and useful in demonstrating many of the key techniques used in colour forecasting.
The book has obviously been written to be an accompaniment to a structured academic course of study. It is easy to read and, on the whole, well presented. The use of colour in the text and diagrams adds to the visual appeal but in some parts is also its Achilles' heel. This is particularly evident in the colour knowledge chapter where the author has to label the six tertiary colours. This leads the reader to wonder whether any of the colour renditions in the book can be trusted.
One disappointing aspect of this book is that the colour science and history presented in the colour knowledge chapter is superficial with several significant typographical mistakes (for instance the human visual system does not have 12 million rods and Figure 3.2 needs major alteration). I would recommend that the interested reader should investigate more thorough expositions on colour physics and colour perception. This is really a minor criticism, as the emphasis of this book is on discussing colour forecasting in relation to the design process. The authors appear more comfortable when discussing design issues but the precision of language needed to communicate the colour science could be improved.
Colour Forecasting includes some excellent workshop ideas and a bibliography that includes a number of references ranging from design to science. Taken as a whole, the book is an interesting and engaging synopsis of the colour forecasting area and I will look forward to reading subsequent editions.
