COLOUR CODED

Before painting your walls take a peek at Asian Paints' colour forecast for 2017

What do Inca Ruins, Herbal Pack, Butterum, Igneous Rock, Grazing Land and Earthly Elegance have in common? They are all names of colours part of Asian Paint’s ColourNext 2017. The paint company has been predicting colour trends for the last 14 years. “In this period we have arrived at a research process that is designed to capture the variety of influences and the complex forces working on the Indian society and spaces overall. We do it because someone has to document these behaviour shaping changes. There is no other forecast that draws from the Indian market,” says Amit Syngle, Asian Paints President, Sales, Marketing and Technology. BEHIND THE SCENES The forecast is the result of months of primary and secondary research using methods like focus group discussions, personal interviews and visual mapping with a representative group of experts in fields like design, advertising, technology and anthropology. “The trends are culled out from the socio-political and economic environment, post which they are mapped to colours, materials, finishes, textures and patterns.

The research itself is a year long exercise,” says Syngle.

DECODING THE COLOUR OF THE YEAR

According to Asian Paints the colour of the year is Intense Ocean, a beautiful bluish-green that invokes a feeling of calm. “At a time of social, political, economic and environmental unrest Intense Ocean opens up the space to delve deep, away from the noise. A shade of teal, it is a confluence of blue, grey and green. The lushest blues come together to paint our year with strokes of serenity. The mellowest greys create a soft undertone balancing the passion of the depth with the lightness of the surface. The freshest greens from the Anahata

Chakra (the heart chakra in yogic tradition) are charged to endure, providing stability,” explains Syngle.