How Milliken Colored Your World In 2019

You may have heard the saying that ‘Color Makes the World Go Round’. At Milliken we can’t quite make the world go around, but we do provide the technology to make the rainbow of colors that do. So, we began 2019 by working closely with experts adept at spotting emerging consumer trends, particularly relating to color palette preferences.

Using various signals and patterns through lenses such as nature, architecture, art and design, and fashion, the past year followed the expectations unveiled in our ColorDirection 2019, with consumers favoring authentic hues with honest colors as bright and real as possible.

These included Dazzling Blue – a deeply reassuring color meant to suggest strength, confidence and tranquility, after a decade of turbulence; Valiant Poppy – an unstoppable red, lifted straight from the palette of no self-doubt, and; Turmeric – the calming yet confident member of the orange family offering a friendly link with nature.

As we move into the next decade Milliken’s ColorDirection 2020 has curated a palette of six new colors aimed at distilling the highly sought-after differentiation potential in product design. The trending colors include Terra Mundo - galvanized by the raw materials of earth, the richness of a warm soothing sunset, the brightness of spices and the darkness of teas; FirstLove - a color of self-care infused with a sweet shade characterized by hints of pink, and; Planet Green: finding truth in forest silence, bringing a deep satisfaction and a sense of belonging to something bigger.

Maximizing color to benefit of fertilizers

One key innovation in 2019 was a focus on how the use of color can help farmers and growers maximize the benefits of fertilizers. Milliken’s Liquitint™ Agro fertilizer colorants are highly beneficial in fertilizer formulations, allowing consumers to identify different brands and types of fertilizer and help to prevent under-and-over application by providing an application indicator. They also provide significant advantages over traditional options in the manufacturing and handling of fertilizers.

They employ a breakthrough new technology and are neither traditional pigments nor dyes. Their unique nature makes them inherently liquid. They also exhibit non-staining characteristics. As such they allow many interesting and beneficial properties for the fertilizer manufacturers and agricultural growers.

Liquitint Agro soluble colorants are suitable for many types and grades of fertilizers. They eliminate the hazardous dust associated with powdered dyes and pigments, helping to reduce the risk to employees and customers, and are not formulated with heavy metals during manufacturing.

Turf colorants growing in popularity

2019 has seen a rise in the use of turf colorants by golf course managers, with long-lasting turf color ranking high in importance, according to a new study. One of the reasons is that people paying high prices to attend professional sporting events, or to enjoy the benefits of club membership, have high expectations.

Out of necessity, golf course superintendents, are becoming wizards in both the science and the art of turf management across seasons. The grass experiences damage from the freezing temperatures of long winters as well as from light and heat stresses from summer months.

Turf colorants and pigments, like those found in Milliken’s Evergreen, have become an indispensable tool in the arsenal of turf managers to cover golf course blemishes, conceal dry spots and mask turf discoloration caused by those harsh weather conditions. They offer a cheaper alternative to the traditional reliance on overseeding. They reduce the need for mowing, high water usage, fertilization and irrigation.

Course managers can also take control with liquid colorants that work overtime by adding color and fertilizer at the same time. A water-soluble liquid colorant like Blazon® is designed for convenient and high-performing spray pattern indication in managed turf grass applications such as herbicides, pesticides and liquid fertilizers.

Color’s powerful role in home and laundry products

Every year consumers are faced with more and more choices on supermarket shelves and 2019 was no different. Branding and differentiation are two elements high on the list which influence purchasing decision across a broad range of product categories, including the colorants found in home and laundry care products.

Studies show that people make up their minds about a consumer product within just 90 seconds; and a staggering 60-90% of that assessment is based on color alone.

But as consumers demand and respond to the uniqueness of color, global trends favoring sustainability and environmental friendliness also means that brands and their products must reflect a commitment to higher quality and sustainable processes.

Milliken’s Liquitint polymeric colorants provide unrivalled benefits in combining dynamic color variations with excellent processability. The water-soluble and non-staining colorants are compatible with the most challenging active ingredients, including additives and higher perfume levels.

One increasing use for these in 2019 has been in laundry unit doses - water-soluble pouches that can contain highly concentrated forms of various products –– laundry detergent, fabric softener, automatic dishwashing detergent, or other laundry products.

Milliken has developed a highly effective unit-dose colorant solution. Liquitint true-liquid, polymeric colorants are highly stable, non-migrating, non-staining and can mask base yellowing. They offer easy processing and deliver deep, bright hues, via the 5 primary colorants: yellow, blue, cyan, violet and red.

2019 has shown that color can play a vital role across the board of consumer products and we’ll all be watching this space to see how color trends develop in the next decade.