Clariant to Engage with Global Design Community during London Design Festival 2014
Muttenz, September 5, 2014 - Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, through its ColorWorks® design & technology centers, is helping to underwrite the installation of two colorful art installations during London Design Festival, September 13 - 21, 2014.
Two multi-color sculptures by Giles Miller, innovative surface and interior art designer, will be displayed with the support of Global Color Research (GCR), UK-based color trend and materials forecasting provider, along with Clariant and RAL, the European color standards developer. One of the sculptures is a 3-meter-tall street installation that can be expected to enliven the bustling area surrounding the Shoreditch High Street underground station, which will act as the gateway to the Shoreditch Design triangle during the London festival. Acknowledging GCR’s Design Week theme of "10 Years of Color," Miller used hundreds of small "tabs" in the colors drawn from GCR trend palettes over the last decade. As viewers approach the sculpture, they are immediately struck by a myriad of colors and tones that create a powerful sensory experience, and as they move around the piece, the colors change relative to each viewer’s perspective.
A second, smaller sculpture will be installed inside Stand 35 in the SuperBrands Pavilion in the same area of the city. It is also made up of colored tabs, but these are derived from the GCR palette for Spring 2016.
"We are very proud to have this opportunity to participate in one of the world's most important annual design events, and to help showcase the visually stunning surface designs of Giles Miller," explains Judith van Vliet, Designer at ColorWorks Europe/IMEA in Merate, Italy. "At Clariant ColorWorks, our mission is to help designers of plastics products and packaging to use color to heighten shelf impact and differentiate brands, control costs and time-to-market, and manage color across multiple materials all around the world. Being part of the London Design Festival in this way offers us a fantastic opportunity to engage with designers from around the world in a lively, stimulating environment."
When it comes to the creative application of color and special effects in plastics design and branding, the Clariant ColorWorks centers are an invaluable source of ideas, inspiration and technical guidance. Strategically located not only in Europe, but also Chicago in the USA, São Paulo, Brazil, and Singapore, ColorWorks centers support brand managers and designers with a dedicated team of Clariant experts focusing simultaneously on aesthetics, functionality, color efficiency and project coordination to establish high-impact color concepts at the earliest stages of product development.
First staged in 2003, the London Design Festival is made up of over 300 events and exhibitions staged by hundreds of partner organizations across the design spectrum and from around the world.
In addition to sponsoring the sculpture displays, Clariant will also participate in the two-day GCR seminar program, also titled "10 Years of Color." The seminars, being held Thursday and Friday, September 18 and 19, in the SuperBrands tent, include multiple presentations that review 10 years of color trends from 2006 to 2016.
Giles Miller and Giles Miller Studio are known for creating intricate mosaics that use metal, ceramic and wood tiles positioned at varying angles to create patterns of light and shadow. The resulting surface finishes can show patterns, imagery, text, branding or any other visual content with a level of intrigue and subtlety not achievable by using traditional color alone. The studio’s website says clients include architects, interior designers and such well-known brands as British Airways, Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Selfridges, Stella McCartney, The Metropolitan Hotel and London Design Museum.
This is the first time Giles Miller has worked with such a wide variety of colors – a spectral color flow inspired by the evolution of color trends from Global Color Research’s MIX Trend Forecasts publications from 2006 to 2016. "At Global Color Research we understand that color understanding is at the forefront of any designer’s work. But color is an evolving science, something that as humans we constantly explore and challenge, and something that fascinate us", says Carolina Calzada, Director of Global Color Research. "Our ethos in this respect is that color, as a universal language, is a perfect vehicle to relate and to communicate. With 10 Years of Color we aim to give London Design Festival’s visitors an emotional and intuitive way to understand the color and trend forecasting process."
Remarks for the editor: In one of the presentations, scheduled for Friday, at 11:45 AM, Clariant’s Judith van Vliet will be interviewed by Tamsin Kingswell, editor-in-chief of MIX Magazine.
