Color Marketing Group
Color Marketing Group (CMG), founded in 1962 and based in Alexandria, Virginia, USA, is an international, not-for-profit Association of 1,300 Color Designers. Color Designers are professionals who enhance the function, salability and/or quality of a product through their knowledge and appropriate application of color. CMG members forecast Color Directions one to three years in advance for all industries, manufactured products and services. These Consumer/Residential and Contract/Commercial products include: Action/Recreation, Consumer Goods, Technology, Home, Visual Communications, Transportation, Juvenile Products, Fashion, and environments for Office, Health Care, Retail, Hospitality/Entertainment and Institutional/Public Spaces.
CMG’s major focus is to identify the direction of color trends, and then CMG members “translate” that information into salable colors for manufactured products in all industries. The Association’s semi-annual International Conferences provide a forum for the extensive exchange of non-competitive information in all phases of color marketing, including color trends and combinations, design influences, merchandising and sales, education and industry contacts.
CMG’s Consumer and Contract Color Directions Forecast Palettes are developed annually through the collaborative efforts of some 650+ members that attend CMG’s Conference. Each member prepares his or her own individual Color Directions Forecast in advance of the Conference, where over two dozen Color Forecast Workshops take place simultaneously.
During these Conferences, Workshop Facilitators lead and direct small group discussions among the Color Design Professionals. After many hours of interaction, each of the Workshops develops a Color Directions Forecast which then goes to a Steering Committee meeting. There, the process is repeated, until a general consensus Palette for the entire Conference is developed.
It is important to note that CMG’s Palettes are color “directions” not directives, which are best interpreted by Color Designers, based on their specific industries and products.
In addition to forecasting Consumer or Contract Color Directions while at these Conferences, Colors Current® Workshops are held to evaluate which colors are actually in use in the marketplace. Design Workshops track trends and their influences on design and color.
These “influences” run the gamut from social issues to politics, the environment, the economy and cultural diversity. It is an understanding of the influences that provides the most useful information, and it is the input of so many Color Designers, that gives each Palette its tremendous validity.
While the end result of each semi-annual Conference is the development of Consumer or Contract Color Directions Forecast and Colors Current Palettes, a key part of these Conferences is the exchange and sharing of information that takes place among members. Knowing what forces and factors are influencing shifts in color directions, as seen through the eyes of their CMG colleagues, is as important to the Color Designer as the Palette itself.