Trend Q&A: Colour forecasting and more

How to forecast colour, its impact on product design and confirming the success of our colour forecasts. That and more on today’s episode.

Want to know what’s next? Listen to the show where our experts from around the globe unpack your biggest challenges. This week, WGSN’s President and CEO Carla Buzasi takes us to London and Newcastle, UK, for a deep dive into colour. Hear from the friendly faces of WGSN and our sister brand Coloro.

Watch the full episode below or read on for highlights of this episode:

Q: How does WGSN forecast colour?
“We start the process by bringing together an international team of expert forecasters who discuss global research, micro insights and proprietary data analysis. Together, we examine regional social movements, global events, art and design exhibitions, tastemakers, influencers and product trends.

“Each colour in our seasonal palette is chosen from Coloro’s extensive library of 3,500 colours. The colour system is backed by proprietary data on achievability, which allows us to check each colour can be reproduced easily on multiple substrates. This process minimises unnecessary wasted resources and ensures we make responsible colour choices.”
– Joanne Thomas, Head of Content, Coloro
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Q: How important is colour for product design?
“Colour is vital in product design. Consider how colours can be moved into seasonal or annual shades. Can previous bestselling colours move into new product lines?

“Colour can be used as a tool to track how products sell. Are customers engaging with more seasonal shades like a joyful bright, or are they opting for colours that feel more familiar and stable? This is a great way to help support product design.”
– Clare Smith, Colour Strategist, WGSN
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Q: How do you confirm the success of your forecasted colours?
“Using AI and image recognition technology to capture colour data from millions of images on social media, colour is precisely mapped to colour codes, enabling us to analyse and interpret the movement of a trend. WGSN’s e-commerce data, which tracks new products, markdowns and out of stocks, is used to analyse how these colour trends are performing at retail.”
– Joanne Thomas, Head of Content, Coloro
Read more…