Great Lakes Green Pages

We now come to Susanne Dotson’s final three palettes.  You will see that the color expanse is not wide; there is no rainbow here.  Instead there is a defined focus on a narrow range of brilliant, vivacious, luxurious colors and soothing, comforting, supporting neutrals.

The seventh vignette Susanne labeled “Will Health Insurance Pay for Facials & Pedicures?”:

Amidst all the worries of the economy people still need entertainment outlets.  With the lowest economy since the Great Depression (and some numbers dipping below that) the movie industry has had some financial success with surrealistic films like “Inception” and feel-good romantic films like “Eat Pray Love”.  Theme parks, on-line movie rentals, and yes, pedicures and manicures are all receiving a good share of the population’s limited income.  This palette is optimistic, fun and playful, yet still grounded in solid classical neutrals.  A hint of silvery blue is played against the olive green and red-orange of the other palettes, complemented by a deep chocolate brown and a cool gray.

The next palette has been labeled “Would Mies Van Der Rohe Approve?”:

Now here Susanne has made a bit of a leap.  The palette is still grounded in the classics, in this case Bauhaus black and white and near primary red, yellow and blue.  However, the primaries are a bit tweaked with the blue tending toward the Eighties mainstay teal and the red being a strong lipstick red with an orange flavor.  The yellow is more muted, hearkening back to one of Susanne’s earlier palettes.  The tote bag that will be given as a prize at the end of this series is featured here.

Thank you Susanne Dotson for your insight and talent!  Thank you Jackie Kubilus for forwarding me your photos from the event!  And thanks again to Mitzi Mills of Anzea for supplying the beautiful Tote Bag and Cosmetics Bag/Wallet!

If you would like to win the Tote Bag and Cosmetics Bag/Wallet, please post a response to this blog with the answers to the following questions (all answers can be found in the posts):

1.  What is the name of the cafe/meeting place in the Eighties show “Saved By The Bell”?

2. What was the decor movement of the Seventies that kept my childhood in the dark?

3. Which judge on Project Runway hates “matchy-matchy”?

Your response can be made in a comment to any of these three posts or in an email to info@thegldc.com, be sure to include an email address…  contest ends on Halloween.

Thanks People!

Again, I want to thank Mitzi Mills from Anzea Fabrics, Jackie Kubilus from Atlas Carpet Mills, and Susanne Dotson of Susanne Dotson & Company.

The fourth vignette Susanne showed us in her Color Forecasting presentation at Ohio Desk was called “It’s Not Your Seventies Brown & Orange”:

Again you can see the oranges are more ruddy and less yellow than in past years.  The neutrals lean toward reddish beiges and muted olive greens.  The browns are more milk chocolate than Belgian Dark.  Although this is a nod towards the past, especially the Seventies, there is something more optimistic here.  The Seventies saw the movement called Mediterranean.  My own parents decorated their new home with black wrought iron, avocado appliances, dark walnut woods, heavy orange velvet drapes to block out all sunlight, and amber light fixtures that helped to eradicate any unnatural light.  It seems that I lived my childhood in darkness.  Susanne’s palette is lighter and brighter than those dark ages.  Her trend board reads “Optimism, shift in orange, red infused, organic, juxtaposing rich neutrals with brights”.

The fifth vignette was called “Tarzhay and Hermez”:

The focus here is on how the economy has changed our spending habits and therefore our design aesthetic.  Stores like Target have become the go-to shops for the home decorator, setting trends in dish-ware,  appliances, and decor for the shopper on a very limited budget.  Susanne’s trend board reads “Adapt, mix old and new, revival of classics, tweaking of tradition, subtle patina, layers of texture, Rule in Design….no Rules”.  Even in fashion we’ve seen this No Rules trend.  Although classic styling and materials are back, thanks in part to AMC’s “Mad Men”, some of the hard and fast rules are being thrown out like having shoes match purses.  On Lifetime’s “Project Runway” judge Nina Garcia has exclaimed her distaste for what she calls “matchy-matchy”.

The sixth vignette, Susanne called “Yes The Glass Is Half Full”:

This green-laden palette has a joyfulness and optimism the photo can’t relay.  Her trend board says “Optimistic Realism, ready to move on, new sense of playfulness, saturated green, renewal, regeneration, looking for brights”.  The green is saturated and a bit acidic, but not the same green used on Volkswagen’s pre-economic-downturn Beetles.  Susanne complements the green with a vivid red-orange and a pale yellow.  A few years ago the “color of the year” was Pantone’s Canary Yellow; this new paler cousin is not buttery but more margarine-y.  Susanne feels this color will be an important one in tomorrow’s fashion.

[part 2 of 3]

I apologize, this is a redux of the original post from this morning.  After writing it, Jackie Kubilus of Atlas Carpet Mills sent me much better photos along with lists of the materials and names of the palettes.  Please dismiss the earlier post as nonsense ravings of a lunatic mind and install this new one in its place:

Every year I look forward to a wonderful event put on by Atlas Carpet Mills, Anzea Fabrics and Susanne Dotson & Company.  Susanne is a color expert and each year she reveals what colors are “right now” and which ones will be “hot in the near future”.

Held at Ohio Desk’s showroom on Prospect Avenue, this year’s event focused on optimism out of the recession.  The colors are bright and inspirational with a definite nod toward the classic.  Why reinvent the wheel in a down economy?

Susanne led us around the room where she had staged a number of fabric samples overlaying coordinating carpets and either coordinated or contrasted with wood samples.  There were pillows and bags made from Anzea fabrics, graciously donated by Anzea’s Principal Mitzi Mills and then given away at the end of the event.

At the end of this three part blog series there will be a tiny quiz.  The first person to leave a comment that has the correct answers to the quiz will win this incredibly fabulous tote and cosmetic bag/wallet combination!  The tote is lined, has a zippered pocket just right for the cosmetic bag/wallet, and has a built-in (concealed) base board:

Susanne gives each of the vignettes a comical name.  This first palette is called “Michael Kors and Calvin Clein meet the Brooks Brothers”:

This palette is made up traditional classic neutrals, beiges, tans, grays contrasted with vibrant splashes of color and heavy solids.  The biggest departure from the past few years is the temperature of the ORANGES.  No longer are they tinted toward yellow; now they are leaning heavily toward red.  Stores such as MaxWellness who relied on yellowish orange as a staple for their logos and interior decors, may find themselves quickly outdated.

This second palette is called “Dirty Martini with a Skewer of Olives”:

The olive color is making a comeback.  It’s not quite the seventies’ avocado green we all remember on appliances.  Susanne compliments the greens with dark ruddy woods, coppery browns and tight repetitive patterns.  Her “trend” board reads: “Realism, espresso + concrete, architectural, chameleon, citrusy (sic) olive, vintage, repurposed”.  There are vintage notes here, found objects, eclecticism with an eye towards art but all tempered with realism.

The third vignette is another nod towards the past.  Susanne titled it “Are We Really Going Back to Mauve?”

Of course the answer is “not really”.  However, cloudy purples, brownish violets, and muted burgundies are in order.  Susanne contrasted them with dark yellows and pale green neutrals.  The Eighties hit us over the head with their heavy-handed use of mauve, rubine red, and teal as seen in the Max, Saved by the Bell’s ever present cafe/meeting place.  We won’t be seeing that particular combination any time soon (with the exception of retro designs), but there will be hints of some of the colors.

[part 1 of 3]