The power of color in contracting

By Emma Peterson. 

Color trends naturally shift. Keeping up with them can be challenging, but can improve your sales.  

In an episode of MetalCast, Karen Edwards met with Brynn Wildenauer and Kiki Redhead to talk about the importance of color choice. Brynn is an architectural color designer for the Sherwin-Williams coil and extrusion business. She explains that her work focuses on “trend forecasting, color development and product development.” Kiki is the global head of color, material, finish and trend for the performance coatings group at Sherwin-Williams. She also leads their design house, which is where all of Sherwin-Williams' color information comes from.  

Color information is key to the contracting business, because choosing the right colors can push your sales forward. Brynn explained that “when you update color palettes and have colors that are really desired in the market, typically the customer is happy and willing to spend the money on upgrading their facility.” Kiki added that “having the right colors at the right time really helps to sell more of that particular product.” 

Brynn and Kiki’s roles in this process at the Sherwin-Williams design house is to guide the choices of contractors, helping them choose which colors to offer their clients. Kiki explains, “Colors have their own lifecycle and lifespan. And when they first emerge, you don't know how well and how that trajectory over time is going to do. We help guide you towards the right colors that we know are going to continue to sell, but not just for this year and next year, but five years, seven years, 10 years down the road.” They do this through a lot of market research, both on the regional scale and in larger marketplaces.  

Currently, Brynn notices a trend in lower contrast buildings. She elaborated, “We’ve seen the black roof with the white house. Now, we're seeing that level of contrast is moving into more monochromatic schemes.” Kiki added that, following that trend, there is a rise in neutrals, such as coppers and terracottas. There’s also a larger trend in roofing with more green-based colors rather than the more traditional blue.  

Read the transcript, Listen to the podcast or Watch the webinar to learn more about current roofing trends and what color means for roofing.