We do not know what is the reference of the “Red Pantone of Shame” is, nor if the color of a redhead is really red. The Red acts as an essential reference color, umbrella of all reds. There are other reds, but here they are. Any color that looks red is red, and it is sufficient with the principle of identification. The same is happening for the other five colors of that essential palette. Once established that the majority of flags are generated from that palette scarcely stocked, and seems that those same six colors appear as functionally essential in the development of daily life, we can agree that they are the “basic colors” in communication. This is due to the great power of being immediately recognized as those that are most different from each other, that have a greater individual personality. The aspect is that there is no doubt that there is no color. They win by a landslide. They are leaders. It is probably that because of that, the sportsmen wear their flag, could be a club or a national team. In fact they sweat the flag more than the shirt. And if they feel what they ultimately feel are their colors, while they dress to be seen. Does anyone imagine a sport without flags? After all, the sporting flag with excellence is none other than the Olympic flag, and its colors are none other than the six of yore: yellow, red, green, blue, white and black. All of its and none else. Let to win the best one, no matter what it is, it will have for sure one or several of those six colors. It is sung. Is a club going?
WOODEN FURNITURE NOWADAYS / ELÍAS CUETO
Traditionally furniture has been a durable object, a family investment designed to last a lifetime. It was common to find inherited furniture in any house; it was also normal to repair and update it to contribute to its conservation and prolong their useful life. In recent years, this reality has changed. Today most furniture spending is not for a durable investment, but for consumption. The way we relate to furniture supply has changed to follow the fashion guidelines. On the one hand there are a large stores with low-cost products that make possible to buy a temporary furniture or just for change. On the other hand, there are a boutiques with products loaded with prestige through the support of brands and international firms. In the 21st century the furniture is no longer a construction but a fashion item. The history of the furniture has been strongly linked to the bourgeoisie. The furniture was not only a lasting investment, it was also a symbol of status. Although today it still by that way, social uses have changed and receiving at home is a ceremony that is less and less practiced. Therefore, other more visible consumer products have displaced the furniture in its capacity to represent personal status in society. A next-generation mobile phone can cost more than a designer piece of furniture and certainly last much longer, but most consumers prefer to use their money on the phone.
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As a result of this change in consumer preferences and consumption patterns, the percentage of income devoted to the purchase of furniture has fallen significantly in recent years. This lower furniture spending is added to the demographic crisis and the aging of the population that characterize our environment. The result is a decline in consumption within the scope of domestic furniture. Other sectors related to leisure have also experienced a strong development in recent decades. The time and income dedicated to tourism and leisure activities have intensified. As a result of this trend, the furniture demand for hospitality and hotels has multiplied, developing a new furniture manufacturing industry: the contract. This activity assumes the design, manufacture and supply the complete environments: hotels, restaurants, etc. The offer is based preferentially on services rather than on products and prioritizes artistic direction and coordination over the design itself. THE COST IN A DESIGN PRODUCT When we spend 100 euros on a designer wooden furniture, part of the money generates profits but another part is used to pay costs. So, a series of questions can be asked: With which concepts does spending relate most? How much money is consumed in purchasing wood? And how much in designer salaries? These simple questions allow us to identify the main barriers faced by the company that represents entering the furniture market as a bidder. From the studies of AIDIMA and using round figures, the marketing and the distribution represents more than 50% of the cost of the product when it reaches the customer. Just 35% for the manufacturing. The raw material used rarely accounts for more than 10%, the use of wood is one of the ways to reduce the impact. The design costs represent 5% of the cost of the product, although it includes both the designer’s fees and the cost of prototyping and product development, the certification, the packaging, etc. The current reality is that most of the product cost corresponds to commercial and distribution expenses. For this reason online sales have developed so quickly, because it supposes a drastic reduction of costs in factors that contribute to a greater extent to the product price. The model of online marketing makes possible to reduce the most important fraction of the cost of the product, therefore it is a model that has come to stay. We do not intend to affirm that the physical distribution is doomed to disappear. The furniture offers a certain resistance to Internet marketing, as well as the need to test and touch the product to assess its quality. The ability of commercials to define the production, create brand and act as design editors is greater than manufacturers themselves because the cost of distribution and marketing is the most relevant in the cost structure of the product. The success of some companies like Ikea or Muji is eloquent. They are commercial companies, whose strength lies precisely by bringing designs and fabrications of third parties under its own imprint and brand. Currently the main value of a design brand is the market than the productive capacity. In a strong market competition and abundant productive capacity, it is more important to control the sensitivity of potential buyers than to have a particularly competitive supply and manufacturing capacity. Therefore, the priority of a wooden furniture project is not a carpentry, but is a market and a commercial network; and the construction of its own personality, something as a brand. The use of a certain material, technology and designs can help to define an editorial line and make a brand possible, but the greatest investment corresponds to the effective positioning of that brand and those products in the market. Talking about the own personality makes us think about the charisma of the designers, but today the editorial line and the artistic direction are more relevant than the cast of designers and the designs themselves. Nowadays, the term “signature” designates less the concrete personality of a professional and more a commercial brand. The designers talk about Hans Wegner (the designer), but the customers refer to Carl Hansen (the manufacturer).