What is colour consultancy and how does colour trend forecasting work? We talk to Vienna-based international colour consultant Alina Schartner to find out.

How did you get into colour consultancy?

At school in Austria, I was already thinking about working with colour professionally in the future. I then worked in interior design consultancy for a good few years before returning to education to study Colour and Surface Design at HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Art in Germany. My specialism there was in trend predictions for home and interiors, but there was an overarching focus on colour psychology and designing purposefully with colour.

Where do colour trends come from?

They come from the world around us – what’s going on in culture, politics, technology, economies. A good colour consultant looks beyond aesthetics to anything that moves people on an emotional or professional level. It’s not like in the film The Devil Wears Prada, where just one person ‘invents’ a colour. All the colours are already out there, our job is to understand which colour is more important for which market at which time.

How does colour consultancy work – what does a typical day look like?

There is no typical day! I could be putting together a colour collection for a global product manufacturer, consulting on European home and interiors trends or collaborating with a design agency.

I tend to be working 2 years ahead, so right now I’m looking at AW 2025/26. I do a lot of colour monitoring, which means observing what’s going on in the world on a very big scale – visiting trade shows and cities, doing desktop research and keeping tabs on 1,000s of influential creatives. Basically, I’m collecting very large quantities of imagery and colours and looking for tendencies. Are yellows more citrussy or more golden? Are cool and warm yellows being combined? Would that shade work in rainy Yorkshire as well as sunny Brazil?

There’s a shift towards longer-term thinking in colour forecasting, and I’m a big advocate for that. As part of a research collective I’ve been working on the trend report RAL Colour Feeling 2025+, which introduces a more planet-friendly approach – keeping five colours from previous forecasts and introducing 10 new shades. The idea is to make it easier to focus on design layering and longevity. Instead of rushing to replace things, we can focus on real improvements and new combinations.

Any top tips for architects and designers working with colour in buildings and spaces?

Well, research shows that globally the built environment is just too monochrome right now. Spaces that bore us deduct from our health and wellbeing.

My top tip is probably to avoid bright standard white for interior walls – it strains the eyes and is subconsciously stressful. Colour doesn’t have to mean bright and loud; smart colour concepts make life easier, they navigate people and help shape beneficial atmospheres.

I’d also say dig deeper into colour because most standard advice is just too trivial.