After the release of the Pantone Color the Year (Greenery 15-0343, should you not know), I went to Asia to make the announcement in that part of the world. It was a terrific trip and, as always, people there are excited to learn about the new color as well as upcoming trends. The presentation that I do embraces international color and design trends, some of which come from Asia.
The first stop was Seoul, Korea, where I had a lovely arrangement of flowers awaiting me in my room. The floral arrangements are always so special and every year that I speak in Seoul (this is my sixth trip) the newest arrangement is more dramatic and unusual than the one that preceded it.
This year the flowers were arranged in a gift box. The box itself was decorated with a simple spray and a colorful ribbon and when the lid is opened, the arrangement appears. Beautiful and brilliant!!
I visited the offices of the Noroo Pantone Color Institute, where I participated in a videotaping.
I was then taken to a lovely lunch, on to a rehearsal, and, that evening, went to a very western-themed restaurant that played the golden oldies in the background featuring Sinatra and Nat King Cole!
On the day of the color event, I did some interviews with the press and then was whisked away to a building designed by Zaha Hadid, the renowned architect who sadly passed away earlier this year. As with all of her work, it is quite a dramatic and futuristic structure.
Staff from both Noroo, the company based in South Korea that specializes in paints and finishes, as well as some my colleagues from Pantone, took some pictures with me prior to the seminar.
Here are a few of the images in the talk that demonstrate a portion of the upcoming trends in color and design. My favorite is the rug that starts out as a wall hanging and then drips down to the floor!
Immediately after the presentation, there was a Q&A period with a few of the other presenters. As always, the questions were thoughtful, especially about the rationale for the Color of the Year.
That evening we had the usual after-event feast featuring delicious Korean dishes, and then the next day we departed for Shanghai. As you can guess, there is no shortage of fabulous food, and I’ll show you some of the food preparation in the next blog post.
Looks like a fabulous trip, and I love the beautiful flowers they presented to you!