June’s webinars, sponsored by Kohler Co., are about communicating with color. By Dianne M. Pogoda
What color speaks to you?
Whether you or your clients respond to warm shades or cool tones, serene neutrals or dramatic brights, color plays a major role in the overall design and ambience of a home. The effects could be obvious or subtle, and it takes a trained eye to know the right mix that will strike the right note with the homeowner.
June’s webinars are all about understanding the science of color and how to use it in interior design.
Each month, NKBA offers free 60-minute webinars, each of which features a presentation by an expert in the specific subject matter, delivered via a virtual platform. The sessions offer certified participants 0.1 CEU per event — it’s an easy way to collect the CEUs needed to maintain NKBA certification. Participants must engage in 80 percent of the sessions to receive CEU credit; registration closes two hours prior to start times. All times listed are Eastern.
This series of webinars is generously sponsored by Kohler Co., and Betsey Froelich, senior channel manager for Kohler, leads off the month on June 4 at 12 noon with “Design Trends: How Emerging Insights Impact Color, Material, & Finish Trends.”This webinar will discuss how cultural dynamics and consumer insights impact color, material and finish.
Designing bathroom and kitchen spaces requires a keen understanding of how clients want to live as well as how they want their space to look. The webinar will address how to evaluate these preferences and touch on how experiences are a new luxury, and how those experiences are impacted by color, material and finish, all while being enabled by technology. Attendees will learn to identify the consumer insights that drive behavior, how to discuss these impacts with clients and the impact on color trends and how all this impacts plumbing decisions.
To register for “Design Trends: How Emerging Insights Impact Color, Material & Finish Trends,” click here.
Next up on June 6 at 12 noon, Liza Riguerra, owner of Riguerra Design LLC presents “5 Steps to Designing a Beautiful Kitchen Every Time: What They Didn’t Teach You in Design School.”
Once a designer successfully addresses function and layout of a space, the next step is solving for aesthetics. Often, the theories taught in design school focus more on ergonomics and efficiency than on good looks. In this webinar, Riguerra will offer straightforward, practical tips and advicefor creating beautiful kitchens, breaking down the esoteric, and sometimes mysterious, principles of aesthetic design. She’ll cover using color effectively and avoiding common color missteps, achieving a pleasing contrast among elements and how and where to add visual interest as the finishing touch to a design.
She’ll also address common design challenges, from small kitchens to tall ceilings and awkwardly placed windows, and how to turn these into assets. Attendees will leave with practical tips and strategies to immediately and noticeably improve their aesthetic design, and learn the two things every great design must have.
To register for “How to Make a Kitchen Look Fabulous: What They Didn’t Teach You in Design School,” click here.
For an exploration of “2019 Global Color and Design Trends,”Ruthanne Hanlon, national color & design manager for PPG Industries, will host a session on June 13 at 12 noon. The 2019 Global Color Forecast is researched and identified by PPG’s international team of color experts and specialists. This presentation unravels the moods, mindsets and design directions behind the entire forecast, with an overarching theme of togetherness and community. In the past, singular consumer trends prevailed, but journeys now are of collective discovery, according to PPG.
Hanlon will explain that, despite the level of political turmoil and argument in society, there is an undercurrent of fresh optimism evident in consumer behavior. She will explain how luxury is being redefined, and how some designers are creating a less showy or private experience for consumers. Attendees will discover the global color direction from current trends, learn to explain societal trends and materials influencing color palettes, and recognize how a change in consumers’ mindset has shifted the colors chosen for 2019.
To register for “2019 Global Color and Design Trends,” click here.
The next two webinars will approach color and design from nature’s perspective.
Straying somewhat from a pure color session, “Geometry in Nature: The DNA of Design,” analyzes symmetry and proportion in the design process. Presenter Mark Rosenhaus, president of Rosenhaus Design Group on June 19 at 3 p.m., starts by asking the question, “Have you ever thought something was beautiful and it felt just right, but couldn’t articulate why?” Rosenhaus will reveal secrets such as how the Fibonacci numbers — 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, etc… — are the basis for the 62% width-to-height Golden Rectangle in creating masterpieces in art and architecture, even music and the stock market. This ratio and sequence are found throughout the universe, from the microscopic mesmerizing spirals of the Nautilus seashell to the telescopic rings around Saturn. This program brings to life how nature and our DNA influence design by observing the proportions of your finger and a pretty face, along with sunflowers, pineapples and animals.
Considering the geometry in nature, properly sized cabinetry become more than mere boxes. Studying the time-tested classics of Leonardo Da Vinci and Notre Dame, traditional symmetry attains a refreshing new aesthetic for the proverbial white Shaker kitchen. The goal of this presentation is to energize a designer’s innate intuition to create art with cabinetry imbued with a timeless quality and illustrate how the 62% Golden Proportion, based on the Fibonacci numbers, reveals the geometry of nature to create forms and balance considered the standard of beauty. Attendees will learn to calculate the Golden Rectangle using real numbers and create designs that are true works of art.
To register for “Geometry in Nature: The DNA of Design,” click here.
Finally, on June 27 at 12 noon, Richard Landon, CMKBD, NWSID, owner of Richard Landon Design, will discuss “Fractalize Your Designs: How Nature Reveals What Feels Right.”
Landon will explain how the four fractal principles are present everywhere in nature, and how we live best when they affect how our homes live, particularly the kitchen and baths. The shift away from single-purpose rooms makes it more essential than ever to understand how to fractalize your designs to make them feel “nature-ly” right.At the end of this session, attendees will understand how to contrast the static geometry of man with the dynamic geometry of nature; how nature reveals four fractal principles for “feels-right” design, and how to apply fractal thinking to kitchen design and the shift away from single-purpose rooms.
To register for “Fractalize Your Designs: How Nature Reveals What Feels Right,” click here.
