TREND: SIMPLE SHAPE AND PRIMARY COLOUR

As designers, it’s important to keep our minds open to re-invented trends (as we all know that what goes around comes around) but it is by looking at them with a new perspective and designing in a new way, that we can make something exciting, fresh and by all purposes ‘new’! Here’s a few of my own recent trend inspirations that I have grouped under the umbrella of ‘Simple Shape and Primary Colour’. Many of these influences are not new in colour or shape, but new in the way they are used, presented or simply displayed to inspire…

Architecture: DRDH and adVVT

As featured on the design blog dezeen, this architectural project really makes the most of a simple back drop by introducing sporadic blocks of bold colour, as shutters throughout the interior. The apartment complex and social centre for elderly people in Belgium was built by DRDH Architects and Architecten de Vylder Vinck Tallieu.

Exhibition: Living Today, The Hepworth Wakefield

A display of memorabilia about the ‘Living Today’ exhibition that was held in 1959 is on display at the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield. The cover of the exhibition catalogue is particularly inspiring and relevant to the current trend of simple geometric shape and primary colour.

Exhibition: Ellsworth Kelly in Focus, Tate Liverpool

Until 29^th May there will be a selection of 11 paintings, prints and reliefs by artist Ellsworth Kelly on display at the Tate Liverpool gallery. Inspired by architecture, geometric shape and shadow, Kelly’s works with shape and colour are inspiring for designers wanting to make a bold statement.

Print: Viewpoint Colour Magazine

With reference to the colour palettes of the Bauhaus and DeStijl movements, the ‘Primary Signals’ feature in the first issue of Viewpoint Colour magazine (supported by pantone) really makes a bold statement. An introductory comment: ‘When lines are being drawn and issues of nationality take centre stage around the world, we reimagine identities at local and global level’ sheds a serious light and adult perspective on a palette of colours which are often thought of as childlike and playful.