July 14, 2021

New Series: Colour Spotlight

MIX 57.01.03 Cloudless

.One year on, our creative agency Colour Hive, spotlight a colour from the previous season’s forecast in MIX Magazine.

In this series, we'll explore the colour’s historic and geographic relevance, and track early adopters in the design industry.

Introducing...

With the everlasting appeal of a sunny summer day, Cloudless blue effortlessly signals optimism and positivity, making it the ideal colour for a world slowly emerging from lockdown.

With other distractions removed, life in lockdown has unexpectedly increased our appreciation of nature. Along with the restorative power of natural greens, what has been missing from a life lead indoors is the appeal of the big blue summer sky reflected in a swimming pool during lazy, hot holidays. No wonder then, that our attraction to Cloudless from design direction Clarity (SS 2021) feels so magnified right now.

There’s a careless hedonism at play here that has strong precedents around the world. This blue is the colour that, especially when teamed with Lumen Yellow, exemplifies the irrepressible ebullience of Miami’s crazy confectionary Deco buildings. There’s more blue to be found in Chefchaouen in Northwest Morocco, said to be painted blue to symbolise the heaven and sky (although more cynical souls might suggest it was tourist motivated).

And then there’s the roofs of Santorini in Greece that reflect the colour of the sea. Or, more surreally, the blue of Júzcar in Spain, painted in 2011 for the film The Smurfs and loved so much that the locals kept the colour.

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In context...

As well as making a strong impact on last season’s catwalks, interior and lifestyle brands have also favoured this particular blue. Despite its versatility with other shades, Cloudless packs a significant punch when presented as a single colour block.

Danish design brand Hay opted for bathroom and resort accessories like waffle towels and slippers as well as a collection of table ceramics. There are also duvet covers, sofas, stools and chairs in this optimistic blue at IKEA.

Shop interiors are making the most of Cloudless blue too. There’s an unmistakable echo of swimming pools at Little Sky Gelateria in Brighton, Australia, designed by Ewert Leaf, as well as a Cloudless coloured curtain, dressing at Yvonne Koné’s boutique in Copenhagen.

There’s even more Cloudless blue to be found in the London store of Danish fashion label Ganni with the colour matched to bubble-gum pink and a rich eggy yellow.

While this colour delivers a compelling visual message, Cloudless is also a remarkably hard working colour, combining with a myriad of different hues, from pale yellow and pink, to ice blue.

The optimism signalled here will continue to resonate, so for AW 2021/22 we've developed and intensified this blue into a new colour, Chlorine. While the biophilic properties of green remain important going forward, the importance of the colour of clear skies cannot be understated.

MIX Magazine is a quarterly print and digital publication by our creative agency, Colour Hive and is available as part of Colour Hive membership.