AkzoNobel’s colour experts worked in partnership with an international collection of designers, architects and technologists to choose a colour which offers customers​ an emotional and practical way to​ transform their surroundings into calm, more comforting spaces in the coming year.

The trends research found that uncertainly around the world is causing people to reassess how they cope with uncertainty. Heleen explained that the way we live and work is being impacted both by the knock-on effects of the pandemic and by rapid technological change, and people are reconsidering how they fit into a new world order that feels fragile and complicated.

She told visitors how Sweet Embrace and its three complementary colour palettes were chosen to help customers achieve a sense of stability and joy as they personalise their environments with memories, paring back to the simpler things and creating joyful moments. 

Sweet Embrace, inspired by the softness of feathers and the subtlety of evening clouds, is a positive and delicate foundation colour that works beautifully on its own for simple decorative schemes and can set off an array of other colours.

Heleen presented ideas and inspiration for using these colours three palettes in various living and working environments. “They offer customers scope to create a huge variety of different and effective colour combinations,” she explained, “ranging from easy and simple schemes to something more adventurous and will help our consumers create their own ‘special somewhere’.”