Why Change?

“Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water.” “Don’t change for the sake of change.” These are common sayings that should hold high value in marketing and branding. When a company makes the decision to change its name, logo or design styling, it is developing a new identity in the minds of its customers and stakeholders. This new identity comes with a rethinking of their marketing strategy.

I am a long-time member of CMG because it is instrumental in keeping me in touch with the latest color intelligence and experts in various industries around the world. I can’t imagine Colorfuel existing without that resource and network. In its 60+ years of existence, Color Marketing Group has continuously grown and evolved to meet the needs of its members. As a member-driven, not-for-profit association there are special challenges with working on a project such as this. Money and time are limited. Before ending my term as CMG President, I worked with a passionate volunteer team pulled from the Executive Committee, to embark on a change that seemed necessary after such a tumultuous 5 years. The organizational and cultural upheaval started with the pandemic lock-down in 2020. When faced with the choice of taking a pause in our forecasting activities or forging ahead, CMG’s leadership chose change. Much of the changes that took place within the association came about as we became more adept at bringing our community together through virtual events (thanks Zoom!) We discovered that yes, we could indeed communicate about CMF without being in the same room! In fact, that learning led to an enrichment of color communication skills as well as digital savvy and a broader outreach globally. We are an international association based in North America and never have we felt more connected through color with our members around the world.

As 2024 came to a close, it was also CMG’s first year operating fully volunteer-led. Growing our community and providing unique and valuable benefits to our members is the number one goal heading into the future. Tightening up our brand message and reflecting our mission as the premiere association of color and design professionals was also going to require an updated website as the old one was losing its functionality.

The History

The current logo for CMG was developed in 2016 in collaboration with the agency of one of our members, Sue Britton. It is a strong logo with historical references to past logos but one that really captured the essence of CMG. This was the rationale: “As trends evolve, trend watchers evolve with them. While our focus remains fixated on the goal of unearthing the next color and design movement, the things that we watch—the details that make up the whole—are never at rest. They are ever-changing, shifting, developing—representing the constantly revolving circle of what is emerging.

And out of that circle comes color. Color is the manifestation of the emotions, ideas, and trends flooding the world today. CMG members recognize this and have made it their goal to capture and nurture this process—to use color as a tangible expression of the world’s collective mindset at any moment in time.

The 2016 CMG logo is a reflection of this relationship. The shape in the center symbolizes CMG as a group of professionals spanning an array of fields and practices. The mosaic pattern represents our collective experiences and interpretations coming together as a whole. And the outer circle, with its fusion of continuous color, is representative of the always-moving, always-shifting circle of trends and ideas.”

The How

Our 2024 committee began the process of the Rebrand with the colors, of course! We felt that a more vibrant palette was needed to reflect our global membership as well as the various markets that they touch. Also the shift to digital color for so many of us in our screen-heavy lives. The colors were analyzed and dissected and pumped up by the committee of Judith van Vliet, Sandy Sampson, Paula Leonard, Samantha MacLean and myself. Kasia Moskwinski was our dedicated website design guru.

Initially, we discussed merely updating the colors of the mosaic pattern with our new palette, but we decided that it was time to move away from that graphic, and on to a new, more modern feel. We used the new palette to create a gradient of color to fill our new, refreshed logo — the gradient implies mixing and motion that represents our collective experiences coming together to create something unique—that is the heart of what CMG does. Because the logomark was originally designed by Britton to be a container for imagery, this shift to the gradient was quite simple. The new logo is born, feeling fresh and lively while still maintaining the resonance with our audience. The colors and the gradient concept carries through to our website which is now a welcoming space for those looking to explore what CMG has to offer. We also continued and implemented the new brand colors into our program offerings, ChromaZone™ our color, material and finish (cmf) forecasting workshop events, FutureThinking™ our trend forecasting workshop, ColorAlert® our forecast validations, ColorSpeak™ which is our educational webinar, ColorChat™ our community virtual meet-up, ColorBridge™ our networking and mentorship, and finally our ColorContext™ another educational offering focused on the application of cmf.