The Mother Earth of Colours
It’s been a little over a month now since Dulux announced Brave Ground as their colour of the year 2021. How are we feeling about it now? You still thinking it is brown and boring and not uplifting?
I love guessing what new shade and its colour name Dulux will choose each year. Not because I am a believer in trends, but because I enjoy reading what leading design experts, architects, journalist etc from all over the world believe will influence the consumer over the coming years, what they believe our world will look like in years to come and how they sum up it all up into one colour. Not, I think you will agree, a small feat, and when they announced it was Brave Ground - a calm, inviting and soothing neutral - I thought it was pretty perfect.
Ok, so many of you think it is just beige, or brown and after the year 2020 we’ve all had, we need colour for 2021 and beyond. Well, let’s dissect this a bit more. When the research for this began, we were not in a world pandemic, but we were facing multiple climate crisis tipping points. Uncertainty and uncontrollable changes in the world meant we could no longer ignore these changes, and that we were beginning to live our lives differently in order to protect the environment. Then came along the world pandemic. A pandemic which forced us to retreat from the world and our loved ones. So, for me, when I saw the name Brave Ground, a visually quiet yet grounding clay shade, I felt like this was a colour we could all relate to and use in our homes.
‘We continue to live through uncertain times’ explains colour expert Marianne Shillingford, creative director a Dulux UK. ‘In 2021, the warm and grounding tones of Brave Ground will allow us to find certainty in the strength from the very ground beneath our feet. Emboldening us to go forward and begin to live again and giving us the flex to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances we face.’
The world pandemic has forced our way of living to be different and through this we have viewed how our environment, inside and outside is so very precious. Through lockdown I believe we learnt how much our surroundings change the way we feel, and I believe Brave Ground symbolises how we are beginning to live, change and adapt. This instantly familiar colour will help us through this transition by helping us to connect to nature through its soothing natural clay colour. A wonderfully versatile shade, which when combined with every other colour on the spectrum it magically helps bring balance to a room. So, whilst on the face of it this may look like a meek and mild colour, it is in fact the complete opposite. It is the Mother Earth of Colours and one to not be ignored.