Talk of the Town: Color trends for 2008

Just like weather forecasts and market predictions, trendy colors are also a gamble every year. The public either embraces a color or shoves it back in the crayon box.

Who can forget those avocado and harvest gold appliances from the late 1960s, or the “everything pink” fashion trend several years ago where everyone was “in the pink?”

Who decides what the color of the year will be and what is in the cards for 2008?

Industries are dependent on color fortune tellers.

Knowing what the general public is going to want next year or even the year after that can make or break a new product line.

One of the elements most important to such industries as interior design, graphic design, and fashion is color. Knowing which colors consumers will be attracted to in a year’s time is essential knowledge to the health of a business, and they rely on predictions.

One such fortune teller is the Color Association of the United States, based in New York. The group has been predicting color trends since 1915.

Before the association was founded, the milliners were responsible for setting color and fashion trends. This group depended on Germany for dyestuffs and Paris for fashion information.

After World War I, the lines of global communication had changed, and the industries dependent on such information took matters into their own hands.

The current Color Association of the United States works in committee style to develop detailed reports regarding future color trends, approximately 18 months in advance. The color forecasts are broken down into four categories: Men’s, Women’s, Youth and Interiors.

Trendy color samples are displayed in silks and yarns for the fashion industry, and in silk-screen color chips and fabrics and/or wallpapers samples for interior decorators.

The Color Association distributes its reports to its members, who consist of businesses, graphic design firms, fashion designers, and interior decorators are but a few of the industries that benefit from such a membership.

This year, the color in the headlines is blue iris, which has already shown up on fashion runways in collections by Prada, Chlo/, Jil Sander and Balenciaga.

The marketing company JWT just named blue as one of the top 10 trends for 2008, saying that “blue is the new green” - because it reflects the ecological movement, and green has been overused. The color of the year isn’t just for designer clothes. The yearly color palates affect everything from the shade of your next car, to upcoming colors in fabric, flooring, paint, pottery, and cosmetics.

So, why blue iris?

Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute¨ and author of seven books including More Alive With Color” says it’s a calming, hopeful, comforting color - soothing for our stressful times. Other “in” colors for 2008 include dramatic jewel tones, like sapphire and amethyst; and Day-Glo orange and magenta. Think "The Mod Squad" or the "Mary Tyler Moore Show." What goes around comes around.

Interesting and educational things to do in 2008: visit the Pima Air & Space Museum at 6000 E. Valencia Road, Tucson.

Not only will you be in awe of the museum’s vast collection of aircraft and other aviation memorabilia, you’ll also most likely run into volunteers from Green Valley, Sahuarita and Tubac.

Lee Vensel, a resident of La Perla at La Posada, is one of those dedicated volunteers who is into his 14th year volunteering at the museum as a docent. In fact, when the Spirit of Freedom hangar opened last June, Lee and his wife Christine sponsored the opening exhibit, “Seaplanes and Amphibians.”

The 42,000-square-foot Spirit of Freedom Hangar is the first new structure to house aircraft in more than 12 years. It is home to the more rare and important aircraft in the museum’s collection, including the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird,” the only remaining Martin PBM-5A “Mariner,” and the very rare North American F-107.

The hangar is also home to the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame, and features the new Museum Store. The Museum Store's new location enables shoppers to visit the store without purchasing admission to the museum.

The Spirit of Freedom hangar, which is nearly twice the size of the museum’s previous hangars, provides additional space for the museum to host community, private and business events.

The $3.6 million hangar is being paid for through contributions to the museum and a $1 million matching grant from Pima County.

The museum is the largest aviation one west of the Rockies and receives nearly 200,000 visitors each year.

The Arizona Aerospace Foundation encompasses the Pima Air & Space Museum, the Challenger Learning Center of the Southwest, the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame and the Titan Missile Museum.

For more information about the Pima Air & Space Museum, go to www.pimaair.org or call (520) 574-0462.

Aryo Wicaksono, winner of the 2005 Green Valley Concert Association Piano Competition, will be playing classical chamber music from composers and pianists who, like Aryo, were child prodigies mastering a skill at an early age.

Come and listen to Aryo playing music from Mozart, Chopin and Liszt a7 7 p.m. Sunday at The Villages Recreation Center, 400 W. San Ignacio.

Born in 1982 in Surabaya, Indonesia, Aryo began piano lessons at five. He grew up and studied at the Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, before moving to Tucson.

He studied with Nicholas Zumbro and Tannis Gibson at the University of Arizona and graduated with a Master’s Candidate in piano performance in May 2006. He is currently studying and being advised by John Steele Ritter, a former artist-in-residence piano professor at the University of Arizona.

You’ll also enjoy a wonderful string quartet performing Mozart and Shostakovich by favorite musicians: Marya Giesy, Alan Brundage, Marion Wolfe and Thomas Hanselmann.

Call Tom Hanselmann (520) 648-7375 for information on the program.

Concerts at the Villages are free but a donation of $10 is always appreciated. Refreshments are on the house.

If you love the arts, January is a great time to visit the Tubac Center of the Arts, 9 Plaza Road, Tubac.

The 38th Annual Members Juried Exhibition is on now through Feb. 17. With more than 500 working artists among TCA members, this show is one of the most popular of the season and free to the public.

The newly formatted Monday morning lecture series, Doorways to the Arts, includes Gary Isaacson, presenting “Porn Pays Better,” a look at the video industry, on Jan. 14 and Ruby Dean, presenting “Working with Leather,” on Jan. 28.

Lectures are at 10:30 a.m. and are free for members and $5 for non-members.

And don’t miss TCA’s famous home tour Jan. 12. You’ll see six unique homes filled with fine art and beautiful furnishings.

For information, registration and tickets call the TCA at (520) 398-2371 or visit www.tubacarts.org.

rford@gvnews.com | 547-9740