Most subconscious opinions about a product are formed within the first 90 seconds of seeing it. What’s more, between 62 and 90 percent of those opinions are based on color alone. Laura Guido-Clark, creative director of Materials for Herman Miller, is particularly fond of this statistic, taken from a study conducted by the Institute of Color Research, because not only does it validate her work at Herman Miller, it also reinforces Herman Miller’s overarching opinion that purposeful designs can facilitate productivity and pleasure. As Guido-Clark sees it, “We need to be leaders with color. We cannot underestimate how powerful a communication device it is.”

Many factors go into determining color in a design and what it should communicate. Guido-Clark uses various methods to determine color palettes, one of which is a process she trademarked called “climatology.” Unlike traditional trend forecasting, “climatology” involves taking “temperature readings” of the current emotional, political, social, and economic environments and breaking them down into human values and emotions. Once a collective desire is determined, a palette and materiality is created to evoke that emotion. For the color refresh of Herman Miller’s three most popular solid color lines, Ground Cloth, Resonance, and Crepe—textiles that are available on a number of Seating and Workspace products—the team wanted to create an optimistic palette of colors that felt expansive, celestial, and lighthearted. “People don’t switch on and off as much as we think,” she says, referring to the narrowing divide between work and home life and people’s desire to create spaces that universally reflect their desires. “People want to make a seamless connection.”