An inspiring podcast on everything you need to know about color!
Happy holidays to all our listeners! See you back here in January with a brand-new podcast with Brazilian creative Michell Lott.
S5E10 Color Devotion with Maye Ruiz
In this final podcast for 2024, TCA spoke to interior designer Maye Ruiz, the Mexican queen of color about the perfect color combination, listening to the genius loci of a house, breaking color myths, imposter syndrome, and how color is her religion in life.
Maye Ruiz, the creative mind and founder of MAYE, an interior design studio established in 2021, has rapidly established herself as a trailblazer in the design industry. A proud graduate of Universidad de la Salle Bajío in 2008, Maye combines her solid academic foundation with a visionary approach to interior design. In 2023, she was awarded by Architectural Digest and named one of the 100 most influential creatives in Latin America. Her accolade for Best Restaurant Design further solidified her reputation as a visionary in interior design. Her projects have been featured in prestigious design publications, including Dezeen, Architectural Digest (AD), and Elle Decor, highlighting her bold and distinctive approach to color and style. Maye’s work is celebrated for its trend-setting aesthetics and unlimited creativity, continuously shaping the future of the design industry. Beyond these recognitions, Maye has collaborated with renowned creative partners and brands, further elevating her position as a leader in her field.
Her commitment to pushing design boundaries and delivering excellence continues to set her apart as an innovator and influencer in interior design. In addition to leading MAYE, Maye Ruiz has passionately shared her expertise in design through academia. From 2015 to 2022, she taught courses, delivered lectures, and conducted workshops at prestigious Mexican institutions, including the Universidad Iberoamericana, Tecnológico de Monterrey, and Centro de Diseño, Cine y TV. She also collaborated on the diploma program for the Latin American adaptation of content by the renowned U.S. publisher Condé Nast, further enriching the region's design education landscape.
S5E09 Design Activism with Fernando Laposse
Fernando Laposse is not only a true inspiration but a great storyteller. His designs are constructed throughout deep levels of culture, challenges, heritage and his great love for his home country Mexico. During our interview we talked about the essential importance of provenance, material, natural pigment and showcasing the story of indigenous communities and their daily struggles through his design work.
Fernando Laposse is a Mexican designer with a degree in product design from Central St. Martins. His practice is material driven and focuses on transforming humble materials into refined design pieces, promoting their regenerative possibilities and tackling environmental issues. For Fernando, the material source and cultural context is of extreme importance. This has led him to forge a long-standing collaboration with Tonahuixtla, a community of Mixtec farmers in the south of Mexico. Rather than working with existing craft, Fernando develops new techniques from scratch which are then taught to members of the community. This in turn creates new sources of employment that revitalise traditional agriculture. Fernando’s projects also strive to communicate the complexity of issues like the loss of biodiversity, erosion, indigenous rights, migration, and the negative impacts of global trade on local agriculture. He does so by documenting the problems and announcing possible resolutions through the transformative power of craft and design. Fernando Laposse focuses on using lesser-known plant fibers like sisal, loofah, totomoxtle, and avocado in his work. He invests time in research to create pieces that not only showcase these materials but also highlight their connection to the culture and history of specific places and their people. Laposse works with indigenous communities in Mexico to help create jobs and bring attention to the challenges they face in today's world. His projects aim to educate and inform, addressing issues such as environmental decline, loss of biodiversity, community breakdown, migration, and the negative effects of global trade on local farming and food traditions. Laposse leads the way in documenting these problems and suggesting solutions through the power of design, showing how design can help make a difference.
S5E08 Color Rebellion with Masquespacio
n this very open and frank conversation, Christophe speaks about how color influences their projects, what are crucial elements for the success of their work and the difficulties they came across on their design journey and the challenge to innovate and pick projects that reflect their values. Connection, Rebellion, Artisan and Sensory, that is what Masquespacio is all about.
Christophe Penasse was born the 4th of March 1983 in a small city next to the capital of Belgium, Brussels. Since a very young age his mother taught him to be a saver. Something that motivates him to sell his old games on trail markets and to his friends. When he was 15 years old while he studied Commerce in his country, during holidays and his free time he started to work for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in Brussels. Being music his passion, at the same time he started to buy and sell records online. After finishing his college studies he went to study marketing in Mechelen, next to Antwerp, while he continued to work during his free time at Sony giving a helping hand to the commercial and marketing department, without losing his passion for music. After schooling in marketing he worked a short time for the American Enterprise Federal Express before accomplishing his dream to go live in Spain, a country that he felt in love with because of its culture and way of living. In Spain the first 5 months he only dedicated to study Spanish and its culture, to later on being contracted as a customer manager for the German cash & carry Makro. After two years of work at the customers’ department he decided to start up design studio Masquespacio with his partner Ana Milena Hernández Palacios. At Masquespacio he is in charge of the marketing and commercial department, as well as being involved in the strategic part of the creative consultancy’s projects.
Masquespacio is an award winning creative consultancy created in 2010 by Ana Milena Hernández Palacios and Christophe Penasse. Combining the 2 disciplines of their founders, interior design and marketing, the Spanish design agency creates custom-made branding and interior projects through a unique approach that results in fresh and innovative concepts. In 2020 they won the EDIDA 2020 ‘Young Talent Award’ by the international network of Elle Decoration Magazine and in 2019 they have been awarded ‘Interior Designers of The Year’ by the Spanish edition of The New York Times’ T Magazine. Previously they also have been awarded with the ‘Massimo Dutti New Values’ award by Architectural Digest Spain and the ‘Wave of the Future’ award by Hospitality Design USA, next to a continued international recognition by media specialized in design, fashion and lifestyle trends. They have worked on projects in several countries like Norway, USA, France, Portugal, Germany, USA and Spain.
Actually they are working on several hotel and restaurant projects in Spain, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Germany, Qatar, Singapore and Cambodia amongst others.
In 2019 they also created Mas Creations a new lifestyle brand that shows their most personal vision through a universe of textures, materials and colors represented in new furniture collections as well as interiors.
Totally Obsessed with Trendstefan
There is a reason why I picked this title and you hear that when you listen to the conversation. Stefan is a true trend hunter who never stops searching for the new as his curiosity brings him to over 30 fairs a year. In this interview we talk about what is trending right now, what is coming and we wonder about what the future may bring when it comes to color and its application.
Stefan ”Trendstefan” Nilsson is one of Sweden’s and Scandinavia’s most influential trend experts. Constantly on foot, he visits fairs and world cities to scout the latest in design, lifestyle, sustainability, retail and hospitality. These insights are shared in various magazines and at seminars. Trendstefan also runs the design arena Designgalleriet, and is most visible on social media under @trendstefan. Swedish magazine Rum have listed Trendstefan as one of the most influential people in architecture and design in Sweden.
Rethinking Color with Anna Starmer
Anna Starmer talked to TCA about her vision on the future of color being more value-based where homogenous colors have no place and we select colors that fit our values, that are beautiful and endure the test of time.
Anna Starmer has been guiding brand colour direction for over 25 years. Her colour library, client palettes and Luminary colour publications reveal the future thinking that will shape the future of colour and materials. She is a board member of the British Textile Colour Group, Intercolor and Interfilliere Salon de la Lingerie Paris. And sits on the colour futures panel for Dulux Paints.
Beyond her books, Anna works directly with brands and retailers, manufacturers, organisations and universities. She understands the technical language of colour, from materials for Dualit or Volvo, to colours for Triumph Lingerie to Ikea. Communicating and visualising colour for brands and manufacturers, Anna has developed colour libraries for clients, from Manolo Blahnik to Marks and Spencer.
Luminary Colour is the bi-annual publication and colour library, founded and created by Anna Starmer. The books and colour swatches are hand made in the UK to an exacting technical standard. Luminary has evolved organically from a future colour forecasting service with a 2-3 year ahead season, into a non-seasonal platform of inspiration and innovation; today we collaborate with botanical dyers, wild dye plant foragers, waste food pigments, waste material specialists and bio-colour innovators – featuring emerging colour swatches in every book.
Colour and material futures sit at the heart of our creative practice, yet beauty is so much deeper than surface level. Our stories have deep rooted connections to the origin of colour and long-term future intentions, way beyond a single season. Our work visualises a regenerative future, exploring a wiser, more intuitive ways of making and creating.
Breaking the Average with Lidi Bus
It is always super fun to talk to fellow Dutchies. Lidi Bus talked about her journey as an artist, how she came about her inflatable design and their colorful combination but also about vulnerability and her quest to break free from average.
Born Dutch, Lidi designs and fabricates unique inflatable props and set pieces, definitely not modern art to be stared at in silence. Her creations are striking expressions of applied art aimed at fashion, interior design, product presentations, photo shoots and events. Inflatable items with specific dimensions and colors can be created on request. Break free from average is her motto and she certainly does.
Lidi Bus inflatables serve as an extension for storytellers to help them create eye-catching presentations. They resonate with creators who see value in an exceptional approach, and seek to stand out from the crowd. Exclusive, bold and unique. Lidi embraces extraordinary projects, far removed from the mundane, making a statement: average is simply not enough.
The very essence of her work is based on a mix of observation, gathering useful and interesting working materials as well as ongoing research into the technical details, including the inflation system and intricate details of finishing. It is from this playful approach that the rough ideas emerge and are then carefully filtered: from broad to narrow, making room for the true concept and final result.
Design Experience with Xiaojing Huang
Xiaojing is the first person on the podcast to talk with an Asian perspective on color, design experience and CMF as she talks about the many differences between eastern and western consumer trends, preferences and color perceptions. As one of the most well-known CMF designers in China, Xiaojing will give her view on what is happening in the field and not just in China.
Xiaojing Huang is a renowned design strategist and trend expert, strategy director and partner of YANG DESIGN, chief editor of China Design Trends Report.
Winner of Red Dot Design Award, IDEA and Design For Asia Silver Award, Influential China Young by Linkedin. Chief editor of China Design Trends Report, which is by far the authoritative annual trend report for the Chinese market since 2013. The report has successfully forecasted well-selling Chinese design trends including gradient, purple, copper green and iridescence. She is curator of CMF TREND LAB, and design column writer of magazines including md. Invited speaker of many design events including TEDx, Color Marketing Group, NCS color forecast and Semiofest. Xiaojing studied in Guangzhou and Berlin from experience design expert.
As strategic director of YANG DESIGN, the forward-looking design consultancy in China, she has been leading the strategic team to build the CMF Lab and UX Lab , defining design strategy to realize business value for companies in different development stages. Her clients are leading brands including Boeing, BMW, GM, Nissan, Hyundai, Didi, Samsung, Microsoft, Huawei, BOSE, Haier, vivo, Schneider Electric, Unilever, Vanke, DuPont and 3M.
Breaking Stereotypes with Ghalia Elsrakbi
In this podcast, Ghalia will talk about how she is creating a platform for the under-represented narratives in the design world in her region, the Middle East and how she is keen on breaking design stereotypes. How can color be used as a tool to surpass digital censorship so designers may speak up and communicate what they stand for?
Ghalia Elsrakbi is a design professional, researcher, and design educator. After obtaining her a Master's degree in Design at the Sandberg Institute, Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, she joined the post-academic interdisciplinary program " Design Negation" at Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht. Her research was dedicated to the investigation of populist politics from the perspective of design and theory.
In 2009, she co-founded with South African designer Lauren Alexander Foundland Collective, an art and design practice based between Cairo and Amsterdam. Foundland’s projects explore under-represented political and historical narratives by working with archives via art, design, writing, educational formats, video making, and storytelling. It aims to critically reflect upon what it means to produce politically engaged work from the position of non-Western artists working between Europe and the Middle East.
Ghalia is an Associate Professor of Practice in Design at the Graphic Design program at the American University in Cairo. She is a co-founder and the Artistic Director of Cairotronica, Electronic and New Media arts festival in Cairo.
Ghalia received a nomination and was a fiunalist for the Dutch Prix de Rome prize in 2015 and the Dutch Design Awards in 2016. She was awarded the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in 2015/2016 for research in the Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington DC.
Ghalia has lectured and exhibited widely in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East, including Centre Pompidou (FR), The Rotterdam International Film Festival(NL), ISPC (NYC), Ars Electronica, Linz (AT), IMPAKT Festival (NL), London Art Fair (UK), Beursschouwburg, Brussels, Fikra Design Biennial (UAE), Porto Design Biennial (PT), Amman Design week (JOR).
Nourishing Tradition with Laura Tofts
Part of learning about color is understanding it's many facets and cultural meanings. Laura Tofts passionately shares her perspective on color from a southern African point of view, describing Zimbabwe's color symbolism across pattern, natural pigments and minerals. Her goal is to bring global color conversations to Africa and spread its traditions with the world.
Born 47 years ago in Zimbabwe to British immigrants, Laura grew up in the Capital City Harare and completed her High School education there. In 1996, after completing Tertiary studies in Linguistics and Tourism, Laura moved to Brighton, Sussex, UK and gained experience in various Restaurants and Hotels before landing a position at the American Express Head Office in the European Corporate Travel Department.
The Call of Africa was too much, and Laura returned to Zimbabwe in early 2000 and joined Avis Car Hire as The National Sales “Lady” .... Until political events in the country saw the rapid collapse of the tourism industry and a very depressed environment. At that point Laura decided it was time for a change and whilst working as a restaurant manager in a 5-star Restaurant in Harare, studied Accounting by night. Once qualified, Laura took up a role as Bookkeeper in a Paint Shop downtown ... and that’s when the Eureka moment happened, and the passion was ignited.
The following year Laura opened her first Paint Wholesale Warehouse in the Light Industry Area, where she is still based today... 23 years later! Needless to say, Laura Tofts has extensive experience and deep knowledge about coatings and colour design. She is the only NCS qualified colour trainer in Zimbabwe, training architects, interior designers and anyone with an interest in colour. During the last 13 years, she has extended her skillset by delving deeply into specialist finishes, such as cement, texture, wallpaper, and anything else that adds dimensions to a wall. She has earned Certification from The Institute of Concrete of South Africa, specialising in cement for construction. Laura owns The Showroom (recently re-branded from Artisan), a surface design company that supplies top-quality products and creates unique finishes for residential and commercial projects. The Showroom is Zimbabwe’s main distributor of Medal Paints, Cemcrete, Earthcote, Jaxoleum and Wallpaper Inn, Eijffinger, ORAC, among others.
Laura’s Instagram Page best summarises it all “Africa forever in my Soul, Colour all around me”.
Honouring Identity with Jessica Bantom
This is a conversation every designer should be listening to as Jessica Bantom and I address the elephant in the room, designing inclusively for a more equitable world in which culture, identity and humanity is honoured. But how may you start that conversation at work or with your client? Jessica speaks from her own experience and research when she says, listen and just ask the questions to that person that indeed is so different from you. What role does color play in honouring identity?
Jessica Bantom is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEIB) practitioner and workplace strategist whose mission is to enable individuals to take immediate actions that create meaningful outcomes for historically excluded people. A graduate of the University of Virginia and Marymount University, Bantom is a skilled management consultant with over 20 years of experience, a compelling speaker, and a certified facilitator and coach with a passion for helping people and organizations activate the values of DEIB to become more culturally competent and thrive in our increasingly connected global economy. Bantom is also active in the interior design industry as an interior design and color consultant and as an engaged advocate committed to promoting DEIB in the industry and in practice. You can learn more about Jessica and her book, Design for Identity: How to Design Authentically for a Diverse World, at JessicaBantom.com.
Color Abundance with Andreea Hartea
How does our past influence the perception we have of our world today? Where does color stand in our daily perception of things and more importantly, how do we select the correct colors that truly make us feel good? Andreea Hartea will explain how we perceive color and how to select the right color for ourselves and our clients.
Andreea Hartea was born in Romania and currently lives and works in Italy where in early 2020, she established RAH Colour Consulting Studio collaborating with architecture firms, interior designers, and international companies. She studied Visual Arts at NABA and completed a two-year program in Dynamic Hypnosis and Analogical Psychology at the CID_CNV Institute in Milan. To deepen her expertise, she pursued additional courses on color by "Max Luscher," attended seminars on meditative and hypnotic practices, while she researched topics like neuromarketing and neuroeconomics.
Her research primarily draws inspiration from psychology and consciousness, focusing on the mechanisms of unconscious and emotional perception. Her fascination with the human experience fuels her exploration of the inner universe as a means to comprehend our surroundings.
She derives great satisfaction from assisting individuals in their daily lives and uncovering the underlying reasons behind their experiences using the power of color.
Her primary objective is to educate people on approaching color from a more intimate, authentic, and conscious standpoint, acknowledging that color affects each individual in a very unique manner. Currently, she is devoted to promote the concept "subjectivity of color” as she has been privileged to deliver lectures to prominent companies and international platforms such as Edison, PPG, Archiproducts, and TedxRoma.
Having moved from theory to practical application, she developed the RAH Colours test, which aids professionals closely engaged with end clients in addressing the challenging question: "What color should we choose?" Whether it involves materials, products, or surfaces, this question invariably arises in interior design and often proves a point of frustration for both professionals and clients alike.
She provides guidance on implementing this methodology, and currently works on creating a platform that will provide professionals with their own personal color consultant.
Moreover, she collaborates with studios and boutique agencies specializing in brand identities, particularly for small-scale brands.
Shaping Color Moods with Ruxandra Duru
Ruxandra Duru is the creator of Color Moods, a tool that shows you how to create color combinations but also how color influences your mood. In this conversation Ruxandra will testify to the power of color and the effects it has on our emotions, feelings and decisions.
Ruxandra Duru researches, documents and experiments with color, beauty and mood.
She currently lives and works in NYC. A third culture person, she was born in Romania, spent her childhood in Morocco, moved during her teens to Canada and in her mid-twenties to Barcelona, Spain where she resided until 2021.
She worked in the editorial graphic design field until 5 years ago, when she became increasingly interested in how colors, among others properties, can create different atmospheres and improve our well-being in a variety of contexts including graphic design, art and architecture.
On top of her own practice, she also uses her color knowledge at Google NYC.
Additionally, she makes music and takes photographs, spaces where mood is also an important element.
Enhancing Color by Light with Rodrigo Fernandez
As many of you know, there is no color without light and this is why I interviewed Rodrigo Fernandez on how we can make color look sexy in a space, on a product and on any imaginable surface. We will also discuss the highlights of Milan Design Week's Euroluce and what color and light innovation was presented. Listen into our conversation to learn more about the deep relationship between color and lighting.
Industrial Designer by ITESM Campus Ciudad de México, Rodrigo Fernandez Barajas has more than 15 years of experience offering lighting advice and consultancy to luxury hotels in Mexico and Central America. He is also a professor at CENTRO de Diseño, Cine y Televisión, as well as co-founder and director of Diez Company, a benchmark project in avant-garde lighting design. A promoter of a lighting culture, Rodrigo Fernández is the creator of The Light Report, an integral communication concept focused on the exciting world of light. He is also the author of Maison Diez Company, the largest lighting exhibition held in Mexico since 2018. He is also a speaker and promoter of a better lighting culture and a consultant in high-end lighting manufacturing.
Cinematic Emotions with Ilya Viryachev
How is designing color for animation and cinematics different than for physical products and spaces? Ilya will bring us along his journey in the world of games and animation as he explains how he applies storytelling through color in cinematic scenes. How do you create the unexpected through color while creating the right atmosphere for a scene? How do you use color to evoke emotion?
Ilya Viryachev is an artist born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, who has spent his formative years in Vancouver, Canada and now living in Los Angeles, California.
After having graduated from the Art Institute of Vancouver, Ilya worked as an animator on multiple TV shows and later transitioned into the Concept Art field. After working as an Art Director in the animation industry for a number of years, Ilya’s latest journey took him to Blizzard Entertainment to lead a team of Visual Development artists to create new cinematics. While that keeps him busy during the day, he spends most of his free time on traditional painting, podcast, travel, murals, and being involved in the local art community.
Hyperbolic Color with Serena Confalonieri
Known for her colourful designs, Serena Confalonieri explains what inspires her and the important role that color plays in creating community, safety and change in neighbourhoods. Serena loves to break taboos in the world of design as she talks about controversial topics in our society.
Milan-based designer and art director Serena Confalonieri works in the field of product, interior, graphic, and textile design, collaborating with companies and artisans of excellence both in Italy and abroad. Her strongly distinctive style is built around a graphic, colorful, and emotional vision, mixed with decorative hyperboles and geometric shapes. Unexpected subjects, chromatic and material combinations, together with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic inspirations, give life to projects where design is given an ironic twist and, vice versa, playfulness is at the root of the project.
Each project starts from an accurate research, which investigates the meaning and history of all elements involved while giving them a personal and fresh new interpretation. In particular, in-depth researches on surfaces are very crucial, in order to obtain impeccable results and a strong consistency with patterns, decorations and colors.
After graduating in Interior Design at Politecnico di Milano, Serena Confalonieri spent some time abroad, first in Barcelona and then in Berlin, where she collaborated with interior and graphic design studios. Over the first few years of her career, she also worked with several studios in Milan, plus with the Politecnico Faculty of Interior Design.
In 2013 she made her debut at Milan Design Week with a selection of products born from the collaboration with companies such as cc-tapis, Nodus, and Wall & Decò. Ever since then, she has been working for leading design and furniture companies including: Abate Zanetti, Altreforme, Archiproducts, Arzberg, Azimut Yachts, Carpet Edition, cc-tapis, Coin Casa Design, Comune di Milano, Crate & Barrel USA, .ex- novo, Fondazione Cologni, Gur, Holland & Sherry USA, Houtique, Karpeta, L'Opificio, Maliparmi, Mason Editions, Medulum, Mohebban, My Home Collection, Myyour, Nodus, Porro, Portego, Potocco, Saba Italia, Sambonet, Swatch, Texturae, Vetrofuso, Wall & Decò.
She has been the art director of design brand and realized many site specific set-ups and installations on behalf of the Municipality of Milan, Archiproducts, Marmomac Fair, and the San Siro Milan Hippodrome on the occasion of the "Leonardo Horse Project".
Alongside important institutions such as Triennale Milano, Fondazione Cologni, Michelangelo Foundation, Coin Casa and Elle Decor, Mexico Design Week, she took part in many projects characterized by the aim of guiding small and extraordinary artisanal realities towards more contemporary designs and products, in order to save and bring to light a know-how, otherwise at risk of extinction.
Serena has been selected for several design residencies and workshops both in Italy and abroad (USA, Mexico, Portugal). Her projects have been featured in many important publications and trade magazines (The New York Times, Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 ore, Wallpaper, Interni, Ottagono, L'Officiel, Elle Decor ...); also, she has received prestigious awards including two Honorable Mentions at the Young & Design Awards and the German Design Awards. Her works have been exhibited in well-respected design addresses such as the Milan Triennale and the Rossana Orlandi Gallery.
Speaking Material with Chris Lefteri
Chris Lefteri invites us to the mysterious world of CMF. How do you bridge the gap between material industries and designers. Why does the material come first in the creative design process and what role does color play? What innovation is happening in the intrinsic world of materials and how does this relate to topics of circularity and recyclability? Material guy Chris Lefteri gives insight on how he builds stories around materials and the challenges he encounters in a world in search of sustainable materials.
Chris Lefteri is an internationally recognised authority in materials and their application in design. The work of his studio and publications have been pivotal in changing the way designers and the materials industry consider materials. His books include Materials for Design and six other titles in the Materials for Inspirational Design series. Chris Lefteri Design has locations in London and Seoul and works with multiple Fortune 100 companies. His studio is widely recognised as one of the leading studios working in the field of materials & CMF. In 2018 he launched FixIts, his first materials driven brand.
Shining your Light with Judith van Vliet
This is quite the unusual podcast for me.. as for the first time I am being interviewed myself by Keith Recker who beseeched, almost begged me to let the TCA fans get to know me better by turning the tables and allowing myself to be the interviewee. This fun conversation gives some insights into the mysterious world of color forecasting and its future, how you may identify color for clients and their brand but most importantly, what color can do for you on a personal level once you learn how to work with it. Color is life, color is emotion and above all, it is power.
Judith was born in 1981 in the countryside of The Netherlands. She moved to the urban environment of The Hague for her studies at the age of 17. At 28, when she moved to Milan, she fulfilled a lifelong dream of living in Italy. She still lives there, a participant in the vibrant unfolding of color and design-thinking in one of the world’s creativity capitols.
Her initial dive into color came in her first job as Product Planning Specialist at Kawasaki Motors, where she was the only European and the only woman on Kawasaki’s Japan-based design team. Later, she served as Senior Color Designer at Avient ColorWorks, which designs innovative and increasingly sustainable polymer-based colorants to the manufacturing sector and was Creative Director of ColorForward, a global color forecasting guide. These positions allowed her to travel the world to present social and consumer color intelligence to cross-industry professionals, designers and marketers.
Today she is captain of her own ship as founder and color intelligence provider at The Color Authority. She’s also vice president of membership of the Color Marketing Group, where she’s been very active for over fifteen years in positions including president and member of the executive committee.
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Shooting Color with Ellen Mirck
How did a Dutch fashion stylist end up in the Milan and how does she mix her northern upbringing and style with the Italian? Ellen tells her story through her styling work around the world using color, fabric and texture to create luxurious yet cool stylings. She loves mystery which can clearly be seen through her work for Vogue Arabia. Ellen explains what intrigues her so much about fashion and how color fits into that world.
Ellen Mirck is a Dutch Fashion Stylist and sustainable editor based in Milan. She does fashion styling, art direction and brand consultancy. She is contributing editor of Vogue Arabia and also collaborates with magazines such as Vogue Brazil, Lampoon, Numerò Netherlands, Tank and Cap74094.
Her clients are Burberry, Max Mara, Hogan, Pomellato, Moncler, Ermenegildo Zegna, Fay, Tommy Hilfiger, Bvlgari, Converse, Benetton, Tod's, Bally, Palm Angels and many more.
Ellen used to live in London and work for Alexander McQueen and Hermès. She studied Economy in the Netherlands and graduated Cum Laude in Fashion Styling at Marangoni Milan. In her work she instinctively pairs the clean, graphic lines from Northern Europe with the warmth and a certain dramatic flair found in the South. She finds the precious in the details with interesting, nature- inspired textures. As a Stylist and Art Director, she'd say she more of a storyteller, really getting into the mind of the client to translate their vision and vivid imagination that might be slumbering underneath the surface. Ellen enjoys clothes, the beauty of them, but also believes in wearing your values.
High on Color with Bethan Laura Wood
Bethan talks about her many inspirations deriving from spending time in different countries while travelling. She explains how she lets color speak to her designs and patterns while explaining the design processes of her latest creations. Her love for Mexico strongly comes forward in the conversation and how the Mexican color palette has influenced her work. Bethan has always had an interest in the relation between people and the object and how she can reinforce that relation through time, and of course, color.
Bethan Laura Wood has run a multidisciplinary studio since 2009 characterised by materials investigation, artisan collaboration and a passion for colour and detail. Residencies and location-based projects have become an important factor in her design process, often working in response to her location, in collaboration with local manufacturers, or reflecting back into her work the visual and material culture particular to that area. Bethan is fascinated by the connections we make with the everyday objects that surround us and, as a collector herself, likes to explore what drives people to hold onto one particular object while discarding another. Bethan explores these relationships and questions how they might become cultural conduits. She is interested in critical approaches to achieving sustainability within mass consumption and the production-driven context of the design industry.
Color Provocations with Keith Recker
Keith Recker is a color poet and you will hear that immediately when listening to this conversation, even if it's not all roses we talk about. Keith does not refrain from talking about how color continues to create political and social divides and often triggers consumers into buying promises not kept by brands. The mission of his latest book Deep Color is to indeed reveal the misperceptions on color and to disclose the truth about each color in the spectrum. Not all that is white is clean, simple and pure..
Keith Recker brings 35 years of adventuresome, insightful, multicultural experience in marketing, merchandising, trend and color forecasting, and content development to his role as Editor in Chief and Co-Owner of TABLE Magazine. With strong roots in food and drink, TABLE also explores travel, interior design, fashion and jewelry, and other facets of modern living, in both print and digital formats.
Recker is the founder and editor of HAND/EYE Magazine, a print and online publication whose 10 issues cultivated a global following. The magazine profiles forward-looking creators, faraway cultures, ancient craft traditions, and cutting-edge design. HAND/EYE saw humankind’s creative future as handmade, which demands attention the struggle of artisans to earn decent livelihoods through preservation of ancient traditions, innovation of new ones, exploration of new markets, and educating the consuming public about the cultural and economic importance of their work. HAND/EYE is on a pause right now, but ripe for rebirth.
Recker is also a trend and color forecaster whose almost 20-year client list includes global influencers Pantone, WGSN, Stylus, Color Association of the United States (CAUS), and more. For 16 years, Recker has been creative director of Pantone’s annual home publication, PANTONE View Home. For eight years he was on WGSN’s global trend and color team. He serves on the CAUS home forecasting committee.
The revised second edition of his book, True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes and Pigments (Thrums Books) was released in September 2020, with chapters already excerpted in London-based Selvedge Magazine, NY Textile Month Journal, and reviewed in many more, including Metropolis. He is co-author of PANTONE: The Twentieth Century in Color (Chronicle, 2012), published in eight languages. His new book, Deep Color: The Shades That Shape Our Souls, debuts in September 2022. His writing on color and culture has been published by the Studio Museum of Harlem (catalog essay about Stephen Burks), Museum of Art and Design (catalog essay about African craft and its messages about the future), Brooklyn Rail (comparing the work of potter Alex Matisse with the performance work of Marina Abramovic), The Santa Fe New Mexican, and more.
He has also worked in the non-profit world as a director of consumer marketing at CARE International and executive director at Aid to Artisans (as well as a board member and volunteer for 22 years). Through his involvement with Aid to Artisans, he has worked side by side with artisans from 50 countries. He has served on the boards of Art in General, Chez Bushwick, as founding chair of The Quiet in the Land (a project which brought leading contemporary artists into communities in the developing world) , and the International Folk Art Market, where he was also pro bono creative director and head of the Marketing Committee from 1996-2020.
“Excellent series about color. It’s a complex topic and Judith approaches it from a variety of angles with her guests. Always entertaining and insightful. I look forward to listening to each episode and learning something new about color and the visionaries in the color world.”
— Review Apple Podcast