Basic HTML Version
60
—GW
of birth to discover your
birthday colour and what it says
about you – dusty pink for
creative types, golden brown for
the great thinkers of the future.
So is colour theory just a load
of mumbo jumbo? Or are the
effects of colour still
underestimated? Research into
the field is still in its infancy,
although colour theory has been
studied at the academic level
since the beginning of the 20th
century, and colour psychology is
actually thousands of years old.
Colour now plays a
significant role in the design of
public and private spaces, the
Pantone hotel being just one
such example. But it’s not just
about painting a wall blue.
Creating an impact with colour
is important, particularly in
business. Colour sells.
assumption that each person
perceives the spectrum
differently. Herbert’s
standardised book of colour
swatches could be fanned out to
make the hitherto complicated
art of precise colour-matching
much simpler, and swiftly
became the universal standard.
Even if we don’t use this
colour language as experts, the
Pantone colour system very
likely has a significant influence
on the things surrounding us in
our everyday lives.
This is very apparent in the
Pantone hotel. Even local
photographer Victor Lévy’s
images of contemporary Belgian
sculpture and architecture are
colour-coordinated to match the
surrounding room or floor.
Keen-eyed guests will be able to
spot some of the photographer’s
subjects ‘in the flesh’ from the
hotel ’s roof terrace. If you fancy
inspecting them up close, you
can take a stroll around the city
or a cycle tour on one of the
hotel ’s bikes.
Brussels might have a
reputation for being a drab, grey
city, but it’s muchmore colourful
than you’d think. Buzzy St
Gilles, situated just around the
corner from the hotel, boasts
contemporary furniture shops
and stores run by young fashion
designers.
The Pantone hotel is a treat
for colour lovers. Guests
needing some guidance can
book one of the hotel ’s colour
consultants. Residents and non-
residents alike can also
download the entire Pantone
colour library on the company’s
app. The app also analyses and
combines colours, determining
the user’s colour type.
There’s also the Colorstrology
tool, conceived by colour
psychologist Michele Bernhardt
and Pantone, which calculates
the user’s birth colour via an
online calendar. Enter your date
D E S I G N
Architecture, fashion and
product designmake colours
part of the zeitgeist. And
according to trend analysts, the
future is set to be very bright.
At least that’s the view held
by colour expert Per Nimer,
architecture and design
manager at colour
manufacturer Akzo Nobel ’s
Aesthetic Center. Nimer sees
2012 as a year of optimism and
endless possibilities, and he’s
chosen to symbolise it with a
cheerful coral red. ‘There’s a
feeling of openness about
design at the moment. We
thought red reflected that,’
says Nimer.
The experts have created
some pretty bold combinations
by placing self-confident red
alongside brilliant base colours
and prim pastel shades. The
British design agency Rooms
Service, which specialises in
interior design for hotels, calls
this trend for combining
familiar colours in new and
unusual ways ‘eclecticism’.
Colours go in and out of
fashion, and many differ only
very subtly from one another.
The human eye can distinguish
between over a million different
hues. Yet when they were asked
to name their favourite colour,
over half of women and men
simply said ‘blue’, a fifth opted
for ‘red’ followed by ‘green’. The
least popular colour was plain
old ‘brown’.
Clearly our ways of talking
about colour lag considerably
behind what we can actually see.
That’s good enough reason to
spend a weekend swotting up on
colour at the Pantone hotel, even
if you only want to find out what
colour type you are.
A tip for guests: if you want to
show that you know your stuff,
order a ‘17-1463’. That’s the code
for Tangerine Tango, a cocktail
named after the Pantone colour
of the year.
Schon der Empfangsbereich des Pantone
Hotels präsentiert eine breite Farbpalette
The colourful reception area of the
Pantone Hotel and its equally bright bikes