2008年11月28日 星期五

FINAL PROJECT - WRITTEN REPORT

Introduction


Every brand has its own pattern to develop colors for each season. By looking deep into the brand’s philosophy, global color trend, brand’s color development, it is not hard for us to forecast its color use of the coming season.


About Initial


Clean and simple cutting, natural colors, interesting textures, combining simple elegance and functionality to a timeless form, are the signatures of Initial.



Initial’s brand philosophy is promoting relaxation, asking customers to get away from the busy daily life and back to originality. The brand’s concept is to help to shaping customers’ behaviors by changing their value judgments. Simple and harmonious colors of garments and shop interiors are introduced to fulfill metropolitan’s desire for peace and rest. For every season, a particular theme will always be applied to the collection e.g. photo hunt, traveling, time.




Colors of Initial


It is so obvious that Initial loves to use the core color of Beige, Brown, White for its designs, creating an unique monochromatic natural earth tone. Alternative colors other than the core colors are added as theme colors to form a seasonal color set. Initial carefully chooses its fabric colorations to make definite statements, as color use is the brand's major selling point. In fact, the alternative colors are dominated by the theme and the inspiration selected by initial’s designer. No artifical colors, only natural colors are used.

Color theme is applied to fashion, store interior and atmosphere, promotion all these aspects, to build a consistent style, thus turn into the brand’s competitive edge to impress its customers. It is like a whole package to wrap customer’s mind. Color combination is important tool helps presenting seasonal theme.



Analysis


After analyzing all of Initial’s collection and view its usage of color, we could spot out its tendency of using color.

Decoding Initial color formula:
Earth tone core colors + seasonal colors matching the theme



1. Different shades of white, beige and brown form the core color family of Initial. These earth tone colors, considered as core colors, are used as basic colors in every season.

2. It is obvious that there is an increase in complexity in color family. Other than its core colors, white, beige and brown, more seasonal colors are added to its design in the newest collections when compared with old ones.

3. Seasonal colors of every season depend very much on the seasonal theme.

4. Only natural colors are used to achieve principle of familiarity, artificial colors are never seen.

5. Colors used in F/W are duller than that in S/S. Dark and rich colors were designated for winter, while pale and pastel colors were designated for summer.

6. Generally speaking, a richer color combination is used in F/W than S/S.

7. Initial color selection for every season is affected by the global trend. Initial chose its hottest color in line with the brand’s mood and degree of tint and hues, applied the color on garments in designed proportion.

8. Usually, special tertiary colors are chosen as theme colors.

9. Themes of Initial are usually about relaxation, e.g. traveling, photo hunt.

10. Proportion of earth tone colors used in designs is decreasing season by season.

11. Color uses in menswear, womenswear, accessories, store interior, promotion items are very consistently matched with brand philosophy.



To summarize, I would predict that in F/W 2009, Initial would still keep the brown, white, beige as basic colors for the collection, with relatively smaller proportion. Seasonal theme would be again about relaxation or the nature. There is also a great tendency for Initial to use the global hottest color of F/W 2009 (e.g. lavender purple and orange-red) as part of it seasonal colors. Monochromatic color scheme and complimentary would still be used continuously.



About my Initial F/W 2009


The 2009 F/W collection of Initial can be predicted by the evidence provided by the theme study and the brand color study. In my prediction, the collection would be inspired by the scents of nature. The theme is set as '' SMELL NATURE, HEAR SILENCE”, asking people to use their olfaction to experience relaxation, feel close to nature. Color of lavender, daisy, grass and wood are inspirations, as they all have very natural scents, making people feel relaxed.

A range of shades of purple, orange, green and brown are chosen as the seasonal colors for fall and being matched with different intensity of beige and brown, as it is Initial's common practice. Chosen colors are all tuned to relatively low chroma and value, so as to remain natural and comfortable. Hot colors predict for 2009, lavender purple (Pantone 687) and orange red (Pantone 1645C) may be the other possible major colors for the collection. Overall, the proportion of core color would not be too much this time.



Review


Aspect to improve in this project is that a deeper study in proportion of color use could be done. As Initial does not have much picture on its collections for publications, it is quite different for me to analyze its proportion of color use as a whole collection.

More practice can be done on achieving harmony with larger variety of colors, as practice makes perfect.

FINAL PROJECT - FINAL TUNED

INITIAL F/W 2009



SMELL NATURE, HEAR SILENCE








Color of lavender, daisy, grass and wood are my inspirations, as they all have very natural scents, making me feel relaxed.

A range of shades of purple, orange, green and brown are chosen as the seasonal colors for fall and being matched with brown, beige and white. Chosen colors are all tuned to relatively low chroma and value, so as to remain natural and comfortable. Red seems to be of relatively small proportion and just for decoration and comparison only.

Hot colors predict for 2009, lavender purple (Pantone 687) and orange red (Pantone 1645C) may be the other possible major colors for the collection. Overall, the proportion of core color would not be too much this time.


2008年11月27日 星期四

INITIAL COLOR FORCAST (CON'T)

After having a few trial color test and research on scents of nature, i chose some potential colors to be used in my collection.

Color of
Lavender,
Daisy,
grass,
wood

will beome my seasonal theme colors for F/W 2009 of Initial.


Shades of color are chosen from Pantone to fit Initial's style,

Lavender
Bluish purple




Daisy
Orange



Orange-red




Grass
Dark green, Green



Wood
Brown, Beige



Wood colors, being seasonal theme colors, at the same time, are the core colors of Initials. :)

2008年11月26日 星期三

INITIAL TREND FORECAST TRIAL 7

INITIAL TREND FORECAST F/W 2009

TRIAL 7



Triad colors are used in this collection.
Orange + Green + Purple
It is quite hard to reach harmony for these three colors, as they are too different.
It is also not that easy to balance the colors.
Orange color in the design adds energy to the collection.

INITIAL TREND FORECAST TRIAL 6

INITAIL TREND FORECAST F/W 2009

TRIAL 6





Achromatic colors are matched with different shades of brown.
Colors are very pale and look comfortable and mature.
A very "Initial" collection.

2008年11月25日 星期二

INITIAL TREND FORECAST TRIAL 5

TREND FORECAST INITIAL F/W 2009

TRIAL 5





A new try.
I try to use more earth tone in this collection.
Different shades of brown are matched with different shades of red.
Creating mature and elegant feeling with less variety in color.

INITIAL TREND FORECAST TRIAL 4

TREND FORECAST INITIAL F/W 2009

TRIAL 4

Cool colors are used in this collection.
Different shades of blue and grey are hottest colors in winter.
Gradual color changes are used in some outfits to create elegent feeling.

INITIAL TREND FORECAST TRIAL 3

TREND FORECAST INITIAL F/W 2009

TRIAL 3
Mainly warm colors are used, making this collection more lively and eye-catching.
Analogous color scheme is used.
This collection is very girlish due to the feminine colors used.
Different shades of red are romantic and sensual color to shows the enthusiastic and sexy image.

INITIAL TREND FORECAST TRIAL 2

TREND FORECAST INITIAL F/W 2009

TRIAL 2

Analogous color scheme is used in this set of outfits.
Sky blue and different shades of green are used as they are colors close to our mother nature, achieving principle of familiarity.
Both blue and green can give comfortable and peaceful feeling.

INITIAL TREND FORECAST TRIAL 1

TREND FORECAST INITIAL F/W 2009

TRIAL 1




A lot of complimentary colors are used in this collection, add variety to the design.
e.g. purple + yellowish orange, red + green
Colors chosen are of vey dull color, matching with the feeling the winter.

2008年11月23日 星期日

2009 F/W COLOR FORCAST

REFERNCES for trend forecast

The Color Trends for Autumn/Winter 2009 Season


--Seizing on color as a power source to jolt colorful tensions.
--Maintaining equal pressure on liveliness and neutrality and encouraging luminosity.
--Heightening intensity, and circulating energy in a positive, rippling or alternating current.




INITIAL - THEME DEVEOPMENT

After all, i found that my note about scents matches very much with Initial's brand philosophy and i decided to use
SMELL NATURE, HEAR SILENCE
to be my theme for Initial F/W 2009.

More research

Lavender








Daisy










Grass





Wood





These photos give me great inspirations on the color use of my new collection.
Color of Lavender, Daisy, Wood, Grass will beome my seasonal theme colors for F/W of Initial.

MY INSPIRATIONS for INITIAL F/W 2009

Yesterday night,

when i was having a relaxing night walk with my friend in Whampoa Garden, suddenly somethings came into my mind.


And i wrote a random note here...



SMELL NATURE, HEAR SILENCE


Everything has scents.
Food have scents,
flowers have scents,
wood have scents,
cigarettes have scents,
chemicals have scents,
perfumes, for sure, have scents,
your own body has scent,
your boyfriend/girlfriend also has his/her particular scents,
even memories have scent.

All of this i have to say that scent is wickedly powerful in its ability to evoke memory and emotion.

Have you ever thought of the scents of nature?
Do you smell nature in the air?




Imagine ...

This is the place where you can enjoy the peace and quiet of the countryside,
the fresh water from the mountains
and the sweet sounds of bird song
Here the air is pure
and the smells and sounds of nature relax both body and mind
enjoy the smells of cut grass and summer flowers,
the caress of a gentle breeze.
Here your deep sleep can go on undisturbed until late morning,
in a welcoming and comfortable environment.


Smell of Lavenders,
Smell of Daisy,
Smell of cut grass,
Smell of old wood.
They are different from the artificial perfumes and fragrances.
The soothing effects of scents reduce heart rates, raise body temperatures, and relax us.



Allow tension of nerve to release, close your eyes and take a deep breath and you will discover the new found energy that the nature brings.


emily
22 November 2009