Avient forecasts a focus on ‘mid-tone’ consumer colours for 2025

Image Credit: Avient Corp.

In its annual colour forecasting guide for the plastics industry, compounder and concentrate maker Avient Corp. has identified four “global trend stories” expected to influence consumers’ responses to colour over the next few years.

ColorForward is Avient’s annual guide that includes 20 colours and effects derived from societal trends likely to influence consumer colour preferences and the design of consumer products in the future. Each trend consists of five colours and effects representing the trend’s different facets, which can be complementary or contradictory.

Presented in Avient’s new ColorForward 2025 study – the 19th edition of its colour trend forecast – the Avon Lake, Ohio-based company has put forward 20 aesthetics, to help plastic product designers and marketing professionals make better colour choices for new products and packaging.

ColorForward 2025 identified the following global trend stories:

• Easy Peasy: Repairability and modularity are the keywords to describe the Easy Peasy trend. “Consumers want to be able to repair products rather than throw them away when they break down,” said Stephanie Dycha, Avient’s senior manager, head of ColorWorks U.S. and Canada. “Modularity supports repairability and allows consumers to acquire a product adapted to their needs. Some governments have already created legislation to push manufacturers to include modularity and repairability when designing consumer products. Ultimately, Easy Peasy is about the consumer taking power and driving change. The Easy Peasy color palette is brighter and more optimistic than the other palettes.”
• ELEVENS:  The name ELEVENS was chosen because repeatedly seeing the number 11 is said to signify important changes are headed one’s way, Avient said. “In numerology, 11 is considered one of the three ‘master numbers’ symbolically linked to transformation and changes,” Dycha said. “While Easy Peasy denotes hands-on localized changes, ELEVENS indicates changes on a much larger scale and in multiple areas: demographics, global economies, consumer power, and quality of life for everyone. The aesthetic palette comprises different color effects and even weight differences. The general darkness of the ELEVENS palette indicates seismic changes that we will need to face.”
• Destination Salvation: “Surviving the next major crisis is often weighing on people’s minds,” Dycha said. “Destination Salvation is about finding creative ways to be ready for when ‘it’ is happening – whatever ‘it’ may be.” Bunkers are back, she continued, and so is survival preparedness. “But it’s not just individuals who want to be prepared,” she said. “Some governments are also looking into survival scenarios such as building self-sustaining areas or exploring space to find our next potential home. The Destination Salvation palette predominantly features aesthetics representing escapism.”
• Carpe Mortem: The Carpe Mortem trend reflects on the emergence of a more accepting and balanced attitude toward death, Avient said. “Examples of how this attitude can materialize are searching for longevity through medicine or virtual existence, or thinking about our legacy through choosing more sustainable ways for our last act,” Dycha said. “The palette includes ethereal and complex effects to highlight how we use science, technology, and maybe less conventional approaches to celebrate life and ensure its continuity after we’re gone.”

“While [Avient’s] 2024 palette was mostly balanced with colors evenly distributed across the color spectrum, the 2025 palette predominantly features mid-tone blues, greens, oranges, neutrals, and no yellow,” said Roberto Romanin, designer at ColorWorks Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) at Avient. “This more subdued colour palette includes some dramatic effects such as copper undertones and material choices that represent the gravity of the challenges we will face. Some moderately brighter colours underline optimism despite the gravity, with both palettes encompassing the feeling of resiliency we see emerging.”