When you hear the word “forecast,” your first thought might be the weather. But we’re talking about another kind of forecast…a color forecast! Color forecasting refers to the strategic, research-driven process of predicting future color trends and palettes to guide design and marketing decisions.
Hagley Library recently acquired the records of the Color Marketing Group, the premier international association of color and design professionals. CMG was founded in 1962 to address the need for a coordinated approach to color marketing and merchandising. Everett R. Call (1922-2011) of the National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Association; Robert Eppinger (1934?-2014?) of Baumritter Corporation; and Louis A. Graham (1925-2020) of the American Viscose Corporation initially met, along with other color professionals, and organized the Color Marketing Group’s first conference in New York City for November 1962.
A regular schedule of spring and fall conferences soon followed, offering a collaborative forum for color and design professionals across industries to share their collective experience and knowledge about color marketing. In 1963, CMG member Elizabeth Burris-Meyer (1899-?), kitchen editor for House and Garden magazine, proposed the idea of a COLORFAIR—a venue for presenting colored swatches of available products from members’ companies, organized by color as opposed to usage, industry, or type. The COLORFAIR became the main focus of early CMG conferences.
In 1972, CMG expanded into the world of color forecasting: predicting color trends—often two years in advance—for products in the consumer and commercial markets. CMG’s color forecasting was conducted during workshops held at the conferences. Workshop participants completed worksheets prior to the conference, then worked collaboratively in small groups to develop their forecasts. Workshop Captains took the resulting forecasts to CMG’s Steering Committee, which in turn developed the association’s consensus color palette that was distributed to the CMG membership for use in their color and design work.
Today, CMG operates internationally, engaging a global network of color experts, with forecasting regions in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. These trusted forecasts serve the group’s mission to harness collective knowledge to drive innovation and creativity in the world of color.
As you can imagine, this is certainly a colorful collection! It includes many color cards, color chips, fan decks, and other color samples (see below). There are also extensive materials related to CMG’s conferences, as well as a run of “Color Chips” newsletters. With more than sixty years of color trends represented in the collection, there are shades and hues for every taste, from the earth tones of the 1970s, the brights and neons of the 1980s, all the way through to more recent palettes into the 2010s.
The Color Marketing Group records, now open for research, join other color-related collections in the Library’s holdings, such as the Inter-Society Color Council collections, making Hagley a hub for the study of color. Learn more with our Color Studies research guide to see all the colorful options!
Diane E. Bockrath is Processing and Collections Archivist at Hagley Library