Colour forecasting initiative Colourways, originally set up by the Design Institute of Australia (DIA) in 1992, has received a revamp and 2 brand new managers – Melbourne-based Kim Chadwick and Sydney-based Lucy Sutherland.

Colourways was officially relaunched at designEX in Melbourne last week and is set to be an indispensable tool for designers, specifiers, manufacturers and other industry members to forecast colours, materials, finishes and trends to assist in the design, development, manufacturing and marketing of products and services.

The DIA stand at the 2011 designEX

“Prior to this it was just a trend forecast,” explains Sutherland.

The initiative will now expand to encompass workshops, events and seminars throughout the year across Australia and New Zealand, as well as monthly newsletters to keep communication channels open between trend-savvy members.

“The beauty of Colourways is that we get a snapshot of the Australian marketplace and all the players within at one place and at one time,” says Chadwick.

“We get the opportunity to look at each industry group individually; they then report back to the group, so that each industry knows what’s happening and they’re not working in isolation.”

“We look at lifestyle, natural disasters, the economy. Each ’table’ does its own forecast, presents it back to the group and we filter and analyse all of those results and come up with a final kit of findings – real products, real colours, real materials, and the reasons why they’ve been selected.”

Built around networking and collaboration, Colourways will be a valuable tool within a local industry that is well regarded worldwide for its spirit of innovation.

“Europeans love innovation in Australia and the attitude in Australia,” says Sutherland. “The New Zealand market is the same – really experimental and open to new ideas.”

Visit the Colourways website for more information on how to join and for a schedule of events.

Colourways
colourways.com.au

Design Institute of Australia
design.org.au