Designing with Colour: Relation, Strategy and Regeneration

With: Timo Rieke (HAWK University of Applies Science & Arts Hildesheim), Montaha Hidefi (President, Color Marketing Group® (CMG)), and Laura Perryman (Designer, Author and Lecturer)

Friday April 3, 2026, 11:00am-12:30pm ET
Part 1 of Series: Colour in Practice: Expanding Knowledge for a Changing World

Timo Rieke (HAWK University of Applies Science & Arts Hildesheim)

COLOUR AS RELATION: THE END OF SUBSTANCE AND THE BEGINNING OF PRACTICE

We have been asking the wrong question for two hundred years: “Which colour should it be?” is a substantialist question. It assumes that colour is a discrete, transferable property — a number, a swatch, a file — that can be specified independently of light, material, body, biography, and context. Every colour system to today’s AI palette generator perfects this assumption. And every colour system therefore fails the moment the paint hits the wall. This talk proposes a different ontology — and a radically different practice. Colour is not a substance. Colour is a relation. More precisely: colour is an emergent event constituted by the simultaneous interaction of light, material, physiology, context, culture, biography, and situation. Remove any one of these, and colour ceases to exist.

Drawing on two decades of practice-based research in colour design, Colour, Materials, Finish (CMF) strategy, and haptic-visual perception, this talk demonstrates the relational paradigm through concrete project work — spatial colour interventions, CMF processes, and evidence-based colour strategy. The theoretical framework integrates process philosophy (Whitehead), atmosphere theory (Böhme), and the sociology of emotions (Illouz) with a five-step field methodology (Befund) developed for professional colour practice.

Timo Rieke is Professor of Colour and Surface Design at HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim, where he co-directs the Institut International Trendscouting (IIT). He serves as Chairman of the Board of the Deutsches Farbenzentrum e.V. and collaborates closely with RAL on colour communication and trend strategy. His research centres on relational colour theory, CMF practice, and evidence-based colour psychology, building on his foundational work on colour-touch synesthesia (haptic visuals, 2008).

Montaha Hidefi (President, Color Marketing Group® (CMG))

THE FUTURE IS ANCIENT: WHY COLOR, MATERIALS, FINISH (CMF) STRATEGY NEEDS COLOR ARCHAEOLOGY™

In the daily race toward innovation, the design industry often forgets that the most powerful signals of the future are buried in the past. Through historical decoding, material analysis, and cultural pattern recognition, Color Archaeology™ reframes strategic color thinking by tracing the life cycle of color through cultural history. Instead of asking “What’s next,” we ask: “What keeps coming back and why?” Through archaeological decoding of hue, material, context, and emotional resonance, designers can anticipate long-term cultural direction, rather than focusing on seasonal palettes. In this presentation, Montaha demonstrates how historical color narratives, especially those rooted in the 1970s, have evolved into contemporary 2020s CMF strategies, revealing the deep emotional and cultural signals that guide meaningful design. By mining the past with purpose, color evolves, from being considered a commodity in a shallow futurism, to becoming a strategic compass.

Montaha Hidefi defines herself as a Color Archaeologist™, uncovering the historical layers of color to shape tactical future directions. Founder of Color Landing Studio, Montaha brings a strategic and investigative-driven approach to color forecasting and trend interpretation. With a career spanning four continents and industries, from specialty chemicals to marketing, Montaha offers a culturally enriched perspective rooted in over 25 years of expertise. An author and coveted speaker, she shares her insights globally through publications, keynotes, podcasts and leadership roles. Her work focuses on research-based strategies that connect color to consumer emotionality and market relevance. Actively engaged in volunteer work at the executive level, Montaha is currently President of Color Marketing Group® (CMG) where she also served as VP Forecasting from 2020 to 2024 and led virtual color forecasting across four CMG geographical regions during and post pandemic. An active member of the Colour Research Society of Canada (CRSC), she served as Vice President from 2023 to 2025. She also served as Vice President of the Canadian Freelance Guild (CFG) from 2021 to 2024. Since 2023, she has been a dedicated Color Consultant with The ChemQuest Group, a leading global firm specializing in consulting for specialty chemicals and materials.

Laura Perryman (Designer, Author and Lecturer)

COLOUR WITHOUT CONSEQUENCE? RETHINKING COLOR, MATERIALS, FINISH (CMF) PRACTICE FOR A REGENERATIVE FUTURE

Every colour decision has a cost, embedded in the toxicity of a pigment, the water consumption of a dyeing process, or the inability to separate colour from material at end of life. Yet in conventional CMF and Design practice, these consequences remain largely invisible. This talk presents a framework for ethical, regenerative CMF decision-making, one that positions colour not simply as a sensory or brand tool, but as a system with ecological footprint, human health implications, and circular potential. Drawing on research across material science, colour psychology, and sustainable design, the session explores how designers and brands can move from arbitrary colour selection towards intentional, evidence-based strategies that account for origin, longevity, and end-of-life reincorporation. Central to this is material literacy: understanding how colour behaves differently across substrates, how it fades, bonds, and can or cannot be recovered. But this shift in practice is not only ethical, it is generative. Natural dyes, bio-based pigments, and waste-derived colour sources are opening up entirely new aesthetic territories: nuanced, variable, and materially honest qualities that synthetic processes cannot replicate. These emerging colour narratives carry meaning precisely because of how they are made, connecting products and spaces to place, process, and time in ways that resonate deeply with contemporary audiences.

Laura Perryman MA (RCA) is a colour and CMF designer, researcher, and forecaster with over 18 years of experience working across technology, interiors, materials, packaging, and product design. She is the founder of Colour of Saying, a London-based CMF design research studio dedicated to purposeful, evidence-based colour strategy, bridging material knowledge both industrial and craft, colour psychology, and sustainable practice for global brands and organisations. Laura is the author of The Colour Bible (Ilex/ Octopus, 2021), a definitive guide to colour in art and design, and the creator of The Circular Colour Report (2021, Vol 2 2025) and Ethical Colour (2022) two publications and exhibitions that have shaped industry conversation around regenerative pigment systems, circular colour strategies, and responsible CMF decision-making. She periodically lectures at Royal College of Art and has worked with clients including Samsung, NCS Colour, Fedrigoni Special Papers, Milliken, Comex Paints, and Bloomberg.