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Cover Story: PPG PAINTS
You ever watch those home interior design shows on cable? You know what I’m talking about—the ones where they always pick the perfect paint for every room and make it all look so easy. Of course, it’s never as easy as they make it out to be. In the real world, selecting the right paint for the job can take all the fun out of what should be an enjoyable experience. And even if you’re lucky enough to select the right paint, it just never turns out as good as it does on TV.
Well, not anymore, thanks to PPG Pittsburgh® Paints innovative Voice of Color program. PPG Pittsburgh® Paints is a nationally recognized brand trusted by painting contractors, building owners, architects, designers, and homeowners for over 100 years. A relentless focus on product development makes them the choice for discerning pros and homeowners today. PPG Pittsburgh® Paints believes that choosing color is a personal and collaborative experience, and they strive to provide color palettes that convey individual style and personality. They also offer the most current color research and trends for their users, so that you always have the best, most up-to-date information available. They work hard to provide color inspiration and tools that assist users in finding their own unique voice of color and achieving their vision. PPG Pittsburgh® Paints developed the Voice of Color program (Voiceofcolor.com) because they believe that every color has an emotional association and that people are drawn to different colors according to their own unique personalities. The program has more than 1,800 colors to choose from and offers PPG’s signature five-color decorating color chips to assist homeowners in choosing colors for all the décor elements in their space. The Voice of Color site is a comprehensive design system that provides homeowners with an engaging online experience. Here, homeowners can identify their unique “color personality” and then find the colors that best match it. Dee Schlotter, National Color Brand Manager for PPG Pittsburgh® Paints, was instrumental in the website’s development. “Voiceofcolor.com provides innovative and useful tools for making the color selection process easier and more fun,” says Schlotter. “Choosing color can be overwhelming, and our tools – the ColorSense game and our five-color Harmony color cards – help customers find colors that will work with their décor and their own personality, style, and five senses. The tools allow our customers to get to meaningful, personalized color choices.” Color Sense Game
PPG Pittsburgh® Paints believes that color conveys emotion and is able to help you express yourself. Therefore, the colors you choose for a particular space define that space, giving it personality and mood. The ColorSense Game 2.0 is a unique color selection tool that helps you learn about your own distinctive personality, style, and senses. This powerful tool narrows down the many available color choices and offers you your own personalized set of colors that are perfect for the particular space or room you’re working on. Nobody else makes selecting the right paint easier or more fun.“I love the ColorSense game because it is such a personal way to find your colors,” says Schotter. Inspiration Café
Under this tab, you’ll learn about all the hottest color trends for 2011. PPG Pittsburgh® Paints features four of these trends, which they group into four palettes: Instinct, Glamour, New Bohemia, and UpCycle. Instinct is warm and authentic, fusing the ancient, mythological, raw, and the primitive with a highly technical modern-day aesthetic. It is a unique mix of ethnic exoticism and modern sophistication. Incorporating glistening metallics and intricate motifs, the Glamour palette is both glamorous and mysterious, perfect for a sophisticated decor. Contemporary and traditional all in one, it is the perfect combination of past and present. New Bohemia represents “a whimsical sense of design, and a rebirth of craft.” Here, bucolic elements combine with second-hand objects, creating a vintage aesthetic for a contemporary age. Finally, UpCycle is all about living simply with a touch of elegance. This palette represents the human desire for clarity, function, and craftsmanship in order to reclaim the beauty of things past. Also in the Inspiration Café you’ll find the Voice of Color Collections, one of which is the Harmony Collection&trade, which showcases nine exciting color families, each with a variety of five-color designer palettes. Here you can explore PPG’s Interior, Exterior, Historical, and Atmospheric color statements. The Room Index helps you find inspiration for a specific room in your house. All you have to do is click on the type of room you’re looking for – living room, dining room, bathroom, office, etc. – and the Voice of Color will provide the best selection. Here you can also learn from PPG’s featured designers—experienced professionals who express their own artistic vision of space and comfort through color. These designers use the same Voice of Color Collections that PPG makes available to you, and they even use them in many of their design projects. My Project
Under the “My Project” tab, you can try the Visions at a Glance virtual painting software, which enables you to try colors from PPG Pittsburgh® Paints Harmony Collections in sample rooms. The Your Voice of Color Scrapbook allows you to save nine inspiring photos within one session, which you can then send to your friends or save for future reference in your personal decoration projects. The Voice of Color calculator can help you decide things like how much paint will you need, and how much will the project cost, so that you can avoid any unpleasant surprises at buying time. Under the “Products & Dealers” link, you’ll find everything you need to know about PPG Pittsburgh® Paints’ most popular brands, including all the available sheens and which one is right for your project. The “Where to Buy” link shows you where in your particular area that you can find genuine Pittsburgh Paints products, so that you can ensure color accuracy with what you see on the Voice of Color website. About Color
This useful tab will answer all your questions during your painting project. The FAQ section features answers to things like:
Finally, the “Tips and Advice” link can teach you how to paint laminate cupboards, or how to choose the right paintbrush for the job, or even what colors best match your personal art collection. Here you can also learn how to create your own little corner sanctuary, how to decorate with bold colors, or even how to design a warm and friendly modern kitchen. You will also find everything you need to know on color theory and how to do those popular faux finishes. Schlotter says that since Voiceofcolor.com first went live, the site has been getting around 80,000–100,000 visitors per year. “We launched the new version of Voice of Color in 2005 and with that came a brand new website that was completely dedicated to showcasing color to our customers,” says Schlotter. “These days, color sells paint. It has become fashion for the home and always creates the most ‘wow’ factor when it is changed. Shift a wall from off white to a beautiful aqua, and it gives such a different feeling and mood. We are now working on a completely new website to provide our customers with an even better place to find everything they need for color and painting projects. Schlotter says that many factors help PPG Pittsburgh® Paints continue to be the painting industry’s leader. “It’s not only our quality products and technology,” she says. “It’s also our global color knowledge, through more than 15 color specialists across a wide array of industries including, automotive paints, consumer electronics, glass, and industrial coatings.”
Schlotter adds that PPG offers exceptional service from more than 60 dealers in the Pittsburgh area including, Westmoreland Supply Paint and Decorating, Masterwork Paint and Decorating Centers (various Pittsburgh locations) and Rollier’s Hardware in Mt. Lebanon. For more information, visit www.voiceofcolor.com. |
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