In daily practice painters and architects work with a unique material. Paint can take on every shape very precisely, and at the same time it can change that same shape drastically through color, structure or gloss. This provides countless possibilities when applied in the construction world. The Akzo Nobel Aesthetic Center in Sassenheim works in the area of color research and color applications in Europe. Buildings can appear more expressive, or larger or smaller because of a slight distinction in the use of color. And the color an area is painted in can provide peace or can actually activate, and this determines the atmosphere.
To a large degree the power of paint is in the flexibility of color use. 'Paint is a useful tool for giving objects a contemporary charisma. Bases that need to be maintained must after all be repainted now and again. That is a great opportunity to introduce changes using color. In this way painted material can be adjusted to new opinions or trends.
Color not only changes things visually, it is also connected with a great deal of meanings and feelings. 'Color shows who we are. You can see that anyway from clothing and cars. A black metallic car looks more distinguished than the same car in yellow. It is not really different with buildings: here too the colors say something about the taste of the occupiers or about the culture of a company.'
In the meantime the availability of color has become immense. The art is in making a proper choice from this multiplicity. Hans Ultee says 'We are conducting ongoing research into developments in the area of color. A range of color tools has been developed based on desires and demands from the market, both locally and internationally. Color professionals can profit from the knowledge and experience accumulated by Sikkens throughout the years, which is expressed for example in the appetizing color collections, the color advice service for specialized support in considering color applications, and the biennial award of the Sikkens prize for color use in architecture'.
From an urban architectural point of view color can be consciously employed to make areas recognizable and to create diversity where necessary. In that case colors provide information about specific districts in a town or village, a historical center for example, a new district or an office estate.
Colors also provide information about the identity of an organization. Among other things this is reflected in the interior and exterior of buildings, in road signs, vehicles, company uniform, product packaging, advertising statements and in business cards. House style elements other than printed matter sometimes have (technical) limitations where color reproduction is involved. Sikkens specialists can provide advice about the technical painting alternatives for a specific color application.
Restoration of historic colors on the exterior of buildings can contribute to retaining cultural heritage. Color interpretations, the building’s function and the surroundings all play a part in the outcome of monument care and renovation. Color influences the economic value of properties.
The use of color can drastically or subtly change not only the exterior of a building but also the interior. (Re-)painting is often the appropriate method to realize the desired changes, since the colors used inside often have a relatively short lifetime due to fashion trends.
For example, application of color in offices, workplaces and factories can result in better working conditions, greater safety and higher productivity. Someone who feels at ease in his working environment will perform better.
Pronounced colors are not generally used in areas where people have to concentrate, offices or study halls for example. This does not mean that these areas are boring by definition; subtle color use can produce huge effects.
Covered car parks can change into more friendly areas through the correct application of color. Color can also be applied very effectively in hospitals, often associated with sterility and ‘cleanliness’, depending on the function of the area.
Paint is the most flexible tool to create the desired atmosphere. Occupiers show their identity with colors. And an interior that looks good in paint and has a contemporary charisma improves the chances of renting a property.
Desires in the area of interior color can be satisfied in many ways using modern painting techniques. Multi-colors for example produce surprising structures and color combinations, the effect of which changes with distance and lighting. And a transparent color makes the simplest wood into a special building material.
Sikkens Decorative Coatings offers support to professionals in the area of color with various tools which can simplify choosing and recommending; these tools can also be used for precise realization in paint of the colors chosen. Sikkens Decorative Coatings offers a range of practical tools, attuned to the needs of the color professional and the ambitions that he or she has for their business. Digicolor digital color projection is one of these.
- Color documentation and concepts
- 3031 Color Collection Plus
With current techniques almost every color imaginable can be created in paint. The 3031 Color Collection Plus, a selection of 1,243 colors, is an outstanding tool for specifying the colors and products for the right applications. The creation of this was preceded by intensive European research into existing demands and anticipated trends in the area of color use in new construction and maintenance. This makes 3031 Color Collection Plus one functional color collection for paints and lacquers applied in the construction world. Certain colors dominate traditionally in architecture, whites and greys for example, stone and earth colors. Other colors are also applied frequently, but are more dependent on color trends: yellow, red, blue, black, pink and a number of green shades. The 3031 Color Collection Plus contains a rich diversity of shades and nuances of these much used colors.
- Sikkens color selection swatch
The downside of a large color range in the form of the Sikkens 3031 color collection is that it creates a somewhat less clear whole. This can be an obstacle in daily painting practice. One hundred and fifty five colors have been documented in a separate swatch to simplify selection. These are colors that have proven themselves in daily painting practice and in which the most popular Sikkens Decorative Coatings can be supplied. The color selection swatch is practically arranged with one color on each page. It is regularly "freshened up" with up to date shades.
- Sikkens Atelier concept
Sikkens Atelier is a color collection with a whole new look at the interior and an approach that is both aesthetic and practical. Sikkens Atelier combines five harmonious color palettes with the numerous possibilities offered by multi-color paints, and covering and transparent lacquers. The palette with its carefully selected shades was put together by a team of specialists under the leadership of colorist and trend forecaster Li Edelkoort in Paris, in close collaboration with color specialists from Akzo Nobel. Sikkens Atelier is composed of five color groups; luminous yellows, organic blues, spacious greys, artisanal reds and graphic greens; there are thirty colors in each with diverse visual properties and structural effects. They vary from the extremely fine, structured wall paints such as Alphadecor to the coarse structure of Alphaflek and from high gloss covering lacquers to sideways transparents. The carefully selected and ranked shades from Sikkens Atelier offer you an overview of the best quality interior colors.
Sikkens Atelier is the first concept with which you can offer your customers a complete color-synchronised selection of top products to decorate the interior. These water based products are especially designed for interior applications, and have already had an excellent name for years where quality is concerned.
The collection is shown on five color cards and five color swatches. This shows off the possibilities of these carefully selected colors in their best light. The five color cards and swatches are gathered separately in a special box.
A conveniently arranged presentation, excellent for use when designing.
- Redox swatch
Sikkens offers a complete range of paint products for metal protection and finishing under the brand name Sikkens Redox. The most applied finishes are available in the RAL colors popular in this area. The Redox swatch is therefore a collection of RAL colors frequently applied in practice.
- Multi-colors
The Sikkens range incorporates five multi-colored wall paints. In addition to the Alphatone multi-color, which has been known for a long time, water based variants in various effects and designs are also available now in the form of Alphadecor, Alphachrome, Alphatura and Alphaflek. There are up to date color collections of these five multi-colors with an extremely wide color range.
- Façade swatch
In the new "Façade collection", Sikkens Decorative Coatings is offering a color selection for wall paints presented in a stony effect. Ideal for your color choice on exterior walls. The colors are arranged into 165 base colors and 225 accent colors.
- Wapex Color circle
Although the composition and use requirements limit the color possibilities for most floor systems, Sikkens Wapex has succeeded in developing a standard series of twelve colors. Some products can even be supplied in fifteen modern shades. The choice becomes even more varied by spreading Wapex flakes into the basic color in one of the two available effects. To illustrate the 45 combinations that can be realized with this, special color documentation has been designed; the Wapex color circle. A useful tool, consisting of two revolving disks, one for the color and the other for the flakes, with which every effect can be imitated. Use of the well known ACC-RAL color codes promotes smooth, unambiguous communication between all parties.
- Living Colors; a natural wood effect in modern colors
The Living Colors Collection covers the transparent products from the Cetol line. The Living Colors palette incorporates 70 colors in five theme groups. Another eight wood colors are available. A choice can be made from a complete assortment of colors for a transparent finish on hardwood and softwood for interior and exterior applications.
- Timeless Colors; timeless exterior shades
This timeless collection of shades can be used in real life to issue a convincing recommendation to your customers, who can use this to form a concrete picture of the envisaged end result. Antique or Avant-garde, Design or Classic, Modern or Traditional - the six palettes are each composed of colors that live up to the characteristics of these "Life-styles".
- Color samples
- Sikkens sample service
Sikkens Decorative Coatings is the only company to offer a color sample service in the Netherlands. Cut samples of every Sikkens Decorative Coatings color can be ordered from the color advice office.
- Sikkens Colortheek
The colors from the Sikkens 3031 Color Collection and the Color selection swatch are also available in a box of cut samples: the Sikkens Colortheek. Using this loose-leaf system colors can be compared, combined and assessed without the shades influencing each other. The color samples can also be used for outstanding color presentations. The collection is always complete thanks to the Sikkens Colortheek subscription service; used samples can be reordered.
- Acoat Color Codification
All of the colors in the Sikkens 3031 Color Collection are classified in accordance with the Acoat Color Codification (ACC) System, based on three characteristic properties: color tone, saturation and clarity. This is a generally accepted method to enable classification of all colors appearing in our surroundings. The ultimate choice of a certain color, shade and nuance requires an extremely precise description. This is why the ACC System works with six character codes. Color code L8.10.60 for example stands for a green color tone (L8) with low saturation (10) and slightly above average clarity (60). In practice more than a million different colors can be classified and coded using the ACC System.
- Projections 3031: a picture says more than a thousand words.
The Projections 3031 software has been developed for Sikkens Decorative Coatings customers and can be put into use immediately after a simple course. Before the first coat of paint is applied, electronic visualization makes it clear how the paint will come out - on the screen or printed on paper along with color samples.
The computer is a tool in the creative process of color advising: ideas can even be made visible in the design phase and can be adjusted to arrive at a good result quickly.
The graphic software program Projections 3031 has 1,500 colors from the Sikkens 3031 Color Collection and the Redox swatch containing RAL colors at its disposal. Users of Projections 3031 underline their feeling for quality and can issue one professional recommendation to customers. Electronic color visualization can moreover be a tool to acquire new orders.
No 'hard rules' exist for choosing colors. But the more a color professional knows about the effect of color, the more accurately he will choose the combinations that best satisfy different surroundings and situations.
- Exterior Color Workshop
Sikkens Color specialists and external experts have combined their experience into a two day Color Workshop, in which aspects like color observation, theories and systems, harmony and contrast, color and form, the time factor, light, building materials, surroundings, color palettes and a step for step guide to the correct color choice are discussed. The aim of the workshop is to refresh the participant’s color knowledge - in theory, but also in practice. Using the new knowledge accumulated in the Color Workshop, the participants can choose more consciously and justify their color choices more convincingly. They can therefore provide better service to both existing and new customers.
- Interior Color Workshop
This Color Workshop is a one day introduction to the fascinating world of interior color applications. Alongside the theory section, practical application of color is the main theme of this course. Several practical exercises based on the Sikkens Atelier concept will follow the morning’s theory section. If you need to advise on interior colors for all "Life-styles", independently of your own taste, this course will be a valuable tool for you.
The Sikkens Decorative Coatings Color advice office consists of a visualization office and four color advisors who create color recommendations for you throughout the entire Netherlands.
For many years the Sikkens Color advice office has been making the knowledge and experience of its specialized advisors available to professional color users who ask for support when issuing color proposals.
Different types of advice and visualization are possible: from a color recommendation for a simple object to proposals for large complexes. The service is either completely free, at rates established in advance or based on a quotation, but it is always based on the technical requirements and what is feasible.
- Types of advice
- For smaller objects that are to be dealt with on their own, technical commercial field service representatives will issue a professional recommendation, supported by a color samples folder.
- If larger projects are involved the field service representative forwards an inventory and a photograph to an advisor in the Color advice office, who will add photograph prints of the existing situation and the one he is recommending to the usual color sample folder.
- With even larger building complexes the color advisor takes stock of the situation on site. He then creates a drawing and a sample proposal which is edited by computer and supplied along with the color samples.
- The fourth form of advising is fully attuned to the customer’s requirements, for example a housing association, architect or painter’s company. Consideration could be given here to fundamental renovations or complex projects that have to be executed in different phases, where specialists work together in a team. The advice presented is generally extensive.
- Diskette service
There are even more alternatives if you have suitable equipment. For example the color advice office can visualize one object and supply it to you on floppy and you can change the color of the basic design yourself if you wish. This means that you can save precious time in the consultation phase with your customer.
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For more information about all our documentation, branches and services you can contact the Sikkens Decorative Coatings representative in your area.