2020 Office Color Trends | Level Office Landscape

2020 is almost here and it opens with our premonitions of the most important office color trends that will affect workplace design in the coming months.

The first focus is on Office Color Trends. Color is a fundamental element of any workspace, able to affect mood, concentration and workers’ wellbeing.

Thanks to Sikkens and COLOR FUTURES^TM research team, Level’s staff attended the “2020 Color of the Year” presentation inside Corriere della Sera’s headquarter in Milan. During the event, Heleen Van Gent – Creative Director of the Amsterdam’s Global Aesthetic Center of AzkoNobel – revealed the most relevant color trends for the coming year.

Human touch: the element that will guide 2020’s Office Color Trends

“We discovered the underlying question of 2020 was: what makes us human?” introduces Heleen. “ The theme the human touch arises in answer to that essential question embracing the desire to treasure our most human qualities, which we’ll need in the new decade we are entering. Our trend research shows that people want to care, be playful, search for meaning, and be creative.”

This was the starting point for the four-color palettes and trends defined by the AkzoNobel’s research center, Tranquil Dawn being front and center in the 2020 Color of the Year. “Tranquil Dawn^TM is reminiscent of the colors of the morning sky and is featured in four color palettes: Care, Play, Meaning, Creativity, inspired by the soft tones of the morning sky in the different seasons. They’re designed to inspire customers and add more “human touch” to homes and workplaces.” Stated Heleen Van Gent.

2020 Office Color Trends: What makes us human?

This is the thought that will guide the design of workplaces for all of 2020, according to four different color trends inspired by the concept of Human touch. The prime example is Tranquil Dawn^TM, representing a new beginning with its delicate tones which harmonize greens, grays and blues.

If you’re curious to discover the new 2020 Office Color Trends, we developed a guide with their sociological aspects and their translation into Sikkens’ color palettes. A useful tool for finding inspiration for your office design projects in the coming year:

1. The Office Cares About You

People want to care more. The use of digital devices, and overwhelming online dependability for social media quick news and daily ease is paradoxally, creating a disconnection from “real life”. People desire to rediscover their relationship with other people and nature to build valuable experiences. To feel human again, we need to reconnect with the other people and meet in spaces that favor the exchange of ideas and social connection like co-living and co-working spaces.

From this need was born the first color trend: “The Office Cares About You”. It’s a workplace in which it’s possible to achieve wellbeing thanks to the positive connection to others and its interior space. The “Care Palette” developed by Sikkens is composed by calm and relaxing colors able to evoke the thought of fresh spring mornings, favoring relaxation and a positive attitude towards others. The use of pastels creates spaces that cares about people who live in it with soft colors and a mix of neutrals that recall the dawn. Light wood and suede bring a warm touch while copper and gold accents enrich the office furniture. Greenery and plants complete the space for a pleasant relaxing mood.

2.Office that Stimulates Senses

People want to play and be less serious. Contemporary Society’s boundaries lead us to take things too seriously and limit our imagination. Today we are feeling the need to live carefree moments and open ourselves to new stimulating experiences, activating our creativity and rediscovering what it really means to feel alive. The search for new immersive and interactive experiences is frequent, both at work and in private life, to stop the daily routine and find new inspirations and creative stimuli.

The second 2020 Office Color Trend “Office that Stimulate Senses” plays with environments able to activate all our senses by shaping new dynamic environments perfect for brainstorming sessions and other energic activities. From here the Sikken’s “Play Palette” has been created, with bold and energizing colors, able to stimulate thought and imagination with their vibrant tones balanced with hues like Tranquil Dawn^TM, 2020 Color of the Year. A perfect mix that involves workers by stimulating their positive mood with the colors of a summer dawn, bold as coral and sulfur yellow used also for patterns, geometric textures and neat lines.

3. The Office that promotes quality time

People search for time to take care of themselves and the things they love most. Time to distract themselves from the fast-paced digital world, where they often see a lack of depth, value and meaning. Silence is becoming the new luxury together with the free time. Digital detox experiences and holidays in remote places are on the rise, to let people find a new balance. Willing to live a simple life and focus on meaningful things, people don’t want to be distracted anymore by futile experiences. Both in their private and professional life, they need to have space that allows them to recharge and focus their attention.

At work time management is also precious, that’s why another 2020 trend is “Office that gives you quality time”. A space that, through a “Meaningful Palette”, ensures concentration and favors focus work, keeping distractions away. Clean tones, simple and elementary help workers to focus their energy and translate their thoughts into tangible actions for the business. The mix of light grays evoke the idea of the horizon during a winter morning, balanced with the presence of Tranquil Dawn^TM. Natural Wood, leather and linen fit perfectly with raw finishings like concrete.

4. Customizable office

People want to express their own creativity. In our globalized society, where everything moves towards standardization, the desire to express one’s own creativity and individuality is strong, integrating our various cultures and identities into the things we do is what makes us human. Nowadays, people are searching for experiences more than “material things”, real and curious stories. Our individuality must be protected and valued at work, by favoring the flexibility and expression of people’s individual talents, while additionally customizing the space.

This sums up the fourth 2020 Office Color Trend: “Customizable Office”. A place where the creative color palette lets the space become curious and ready to embrace every worker with their various characteristics and values. Warm and sumptuous colors and patterns, connected to the past but projecting the future, the ability to customize the office thanks to an array of fabrics and warm colored tones, like the ones of an autumn morning. The color palette is composed by intense tones of greens, earthy and pale ochre balanced by hues of Tranquil Dawn^TM.