Case Study: Fall 2020 Color Trends

Project Overview

Primary Questions for my strategy

What are the color trends for the upcoming 2020 Fall season?
How do I translate those trends for the user persona?

Research Phase

I began the process by scouring the early trend reports from WGSN. The initial reports gave me context and informed my initial point of view. The items

initial research.jpg — Initial information collection

I printed all information, and pinned to the magnetic dry erase board. From there, I sorted the information into a high level affinity map. This gave me the prospective to start the next steps of pulling specific color information from the real life runway reports.

Runway Information Pull

Working my way around the color wheel, I pulled any relevant image showing that season’s interpretation of color. Again, I sorted these images into an affinity map; organizing each color next to its logical next step. This allowed me to understand the transitions between colors and how they relate to each other this season.

User Persona

The customer for the brand is well-established. She is 55+, affluent, and tends to be both practical, yet fashionable. She will try a trend after it has been established and will hang on to a trend slightly longer than the average, if it’s something she loves. She is aging, but doesn’t feel old and wants a wardrobe that accommodates her busy lifestyle.

Gen X Trendsetter

55+ woman, highly educated with a sophisticated sense of style with a practical streak

Photo Credit: Grece Ghanam Instagram - WGSN

Ideating the Color Palette

My first step was to pull Pantone chips to match each of the color groupings. Any relevant trend, represented by more than 4 images, was given higher priority. Next, with the persona in mind, I went one-by-one through the Pantone chips pulled to determine whether they were sale-able colors for our lady. In most case, they are not and each rejected color was flagged. On my third pass, I pulled new sale-able colors for our persona in the groupings. My final pass was taking a high level look at the whole palette, looking for any color jumps and whether we were still hitting all relevant trends. I repeated this process until the palette felt cohesive, sale-able, and reflective of the trend.

Fall Color Trends 2020