The June webinar series, sponsored by Blum, explores the power of color in designs.
By Dianne M. Pogoda
It’s well documented that color plays a vital role in mood, mental health and well-being, and it has rarely been as important as it is in today’s environment.
NKBA’s free webinars in June are focused on the use of color and style in design, how to communicate with clients about it, how to energize the all-white kitchen, and a color forecast. They are generously sponsored by Blum, an innovative family-owned company whose mission is “to perfect motion” with smooth-glide and soft-close runners and hinges for cabinet doors, drawers and more.
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 for designers to collect the CEUs needed to maintain NKBA certification. Participants must engage in 80 percent of the live sessions to receive CEU credit; registration closes two hours prior to start times. All webinars begin at 12 noon, Eastern Time. To register, click here, and select “Learn more.”
Leading off the month’s series on June 8, Paula Kennedy, CMKBD, CLIPP, CACC, owner of Timeless Kitchen Design in Seattle, presents “Color Cues – Psychology of Color (Part 2).” In this webinar, Kennedy will build on the first part in her series, expanding on how color affects people and how to adjust surroundings to better support health and wellness. She’ll discuss how the human eye and brain see color and interpret the input that light creates from reflecting on an object. “Color influences nearly everything in our lives,” Kennedy says, “we can become aware of how to use color to support a sense of wellbeing and joy in our environments.
We assimilate and experience colors through our culture, the seasons and even down to the basic stop sign.”
She will outline how to create intimacy in a space, how to use color to increase appetites or create a sense of calm for a hyperactive child, and how to apply color to aid in universal design and wellness design. Attendees will learn about industry research, consumer habits and needs.
To register for this session, click here.
Next up on June 15, join Allie Mann, senior designer at Case Design, for “Color Splash: A Colorful Approach to Designing Your Next Kitchen or Bath.” Mann will discuss how to design something beyond a white kitchen, and how to add more drama and flare to any bathroom design. She’ll offer solutions to anyone who’s curious about color but unsure about how to use it, or feels overwhelmed by the use of color. Mann will share several ways she designs kitchens and bathrooms with color, its importance, and how she empowers her clients to make bold color selections and design choices. Additionally, she’ll describe the background and history of color in design, show how to apply designer influence of color knowledge with clients, and experiment with ways to incorporate color in a kitchen or bathroom.
To register for this webinar, click here.
Feras Irikat, director of design & marketing at Lunada Bay Tile, takes viewers on a journey about “The Art of Innovation” on June 22. In this presentation, Irikat will illustrate how to practice the science of creativity in everyday life as well as implementing innovation in business; show how to embrace and nurture an innovative culture; describe the difference between innovation and invention — “you can’t invent every day, but you can innovate every day;” capture, gather and process knowledge, drivers and other research materials. Irikat will also describe the five steps to processing information and trend signs in the mindset of an innovator, and how to recognize the science behind creativity and how to improve your own.
To register for this class, click here.
Finally, on June 29, join Ruthanne Hanlon, national color & design manager at PPG Paints for her “2021 Global Color & Design Forecast.” This annual forecast is researched and identified by PPG’s international team of over 25 color experts in automotive, architectural, consumer electronics, industrial and aerospace spanning 11 countries. The team chose the themes and colors two months before the Coronavirus outbreak, and the influencing factors and direction have only intensified in the months since.
“The societal and emotional touch points we identified as key influencers stayed the same, just magnified by the pandemic,” Hanlon says. The 2021 global trends story is titled Transcend, meaning to go beyond the range or limit of something; to surpass. Each theme represents pathways in the quest for comfort in a very unpredictable world, whether through wellness, community, nature, kindness, antidotes to negativity and even technological advancements. Attendees will learn to describe these societal trends and materials influencing color trends; to compare how other industries influence architectural preferences, and to recognize how the change in the consumer mindset shifted the colors chosen for 2021.
To register for this webinar, click here.
