For product designers, red edged out green as the colour of money, soon after Apple Computer used it to overcome a major sales slump. Red has been trumpeted as the new black of fashion, reflecting the mood of the new millennium. The magazine's design editor, Linda O'Keeffe, who leads a panel on trends at the Washington Design Centre on Jan 9, says neutral palettes already look like the 1990s. But she urges caution. Americans are not yet as ready to adopt bold colour as European consumers have been.
Confidence comes before the colour.
Not to worry. Colour forecasters have already looked beyond. D'Arconte suggests that bright red will evolve into burgundies, plums and purples. Colours that usually happen when people are in a renaissance. Either way, the burst of colour suggests we have come a long way since the movie version of 2001.