Trends Analysis is a column focusing on analyzing the current trends of today.  Keep in mind, trends change almost daily, but this post doesn’t (unless I want it to).

Colour is a crucial part of design.  Thought I’d start with a little Captain Obvious, so you’d hit the break for more. 

Colour has always been at the forefront of a trend.  You’ve all heard the common phrases, “Pink is the new black”.  You decide on your clothing many times based on colour matching.  Now, you can even match a colour choice to a specific gadget.  Seriously, try thinking of a device independent of a flagship colour.  Previously, what was exclusive to clothes is now blasting its way through the technological front.  Ever since Apple’s iPod revolution and the Motorola RAZR, it’s been cool to have the latest and greatest gadget even for the non-geeks.  So what does this matter to you?  It doesn’t – this is an analysis, not an editorial!

Consumers are defined by their colours.  For the modern gadget user, themes are everything.  All operating system of all sorts now have themes to customize their look and feel.  Gadgets are typically launched or re-launched with an assortment of colours to satisfy a variety of people.  The average consumer decides on the colour of their next gadget based on their colour palette at home, what they are wearing, or what generally looks cool. 

History

In the past, your typical computer operating system was fitted with its standard fare of greys, blues, and blacks.  Windows XP and Apple OS X kickstarted things by adding themes and motifs.  Generally, most users were happy with what they were able to customize.  However today, tell me you’re content with XP’s default theme, and I’ll tell you that you’re boring.  Microsoft realized this game during the planning stage for its next biggest product iterations: Windows Vista and Office 2007.  For the Office Suite, Microsoft blew us away with themes and motifs right from the get go.  Windows Vista also specifically implemented colours for the best eye-attraction, and cool factor.  The “Vista” black and grey shades are pretty much owned by them now, and in my opinion, it works very well for them.

In the world of web browsers, Google excitedly debuted their fiend into the world, labeled Chrome – again, related to a colour.  Although its colour scheme (thankfully) lacks chrome, its palette is starting to define the Google experience.  Gmail looks spectacular running inside Chrome, due to their “native” Google colour.  There’s not one shade of blue that’s really defining, but the entire palette of blues that they use work in tandem to provide you one heck of a good looking experience. 

More now than ever, colour is starting to define entire companies and firms - from the aforementioned dark greys employed by Vista, to the various blues used by Google.  Of course, Apple has already received worldwide recognition with its pearl white iPod product lines, although their new trends are gearing towards a piano black motif (after a brief chrome/silver look).  And as an adamant lover of piano black, I really hate that their using it.  Once these gigantic firms start to redesign their entire lineup after a specific colour, the colour starts to become commoditized, and in effect, doesn’t genuinely reflect uniqueness – which brings me to my actual trend analysis point.

The Now

The colour of the NOW is piano black.  Sony and Samsung started it all with their lineups of glossy piano black high definition TVs.  Once those started to pick up (along with the uprising in general HDTV sales), Samsung transitioned the colour over to their line of LCD monitors (previously matte black).  Sony’s BRAVIA line and Samsung’s entire flat-panel business boomed with piano black, while LG, Acer and their silver themes couldn’t compete.  Now, HP comes into a line introducing round-edged panels again, in piano black, and they produce a relative boom.  Even their new touch panel TouchSmart line boasts piano black exteriors.

Continuing, Sony brought into the world, the Playstation 3, a piano black sequel to the matte black Playstation 2.  Its piano black colour (and of course, its high price and high cost) caused it to be the “luxury” console, and its initial sales represented that fact, as it didn’t hit the mainstream market too strongly.  The PS3’s new mainstream cost and type of games are now reviving a boom (watch the gaming market for the boom of LittleBigPlanet).  Piano black is also seen in Sony’s portable gaming console, the PSP.  The PSP-1000 had a matte black exterior, but Sony soon opted for the piano black backing for its next iteration, the PSP-2000. 

Apple’s iPhone revolution also complemented the piano black market (hah, piano black market).  And with the launch of its full piano black backing on the iPhone 3G, it’s running full steam into it.  Apple’s new lineups of Macbooks and Macbook Pros are rumoured to be sporting piano black linings.

Where is this going to go?  Expect your laptops to have lined piano black exteriors, expect cellphones to sport piano black casings, and heck, expect your sunglasses to be piano black.  CRAP… they already are.  Well, there you have it, the colour of now, is piano black.  

Tags: Trends

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Columns, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.