Cold escape

This is a sustainable story, about how being cold is increasingly rare, and so more desirable. Record-breaking summer temperatures in 2024 saw 10 countries register temperatures over 50°C, driving the rise of ‘coolcations’ with tourists travelling to Canada, Scandinavia and Switzerland.

People are drawn to the cold as a means of escape from extreme heat and for health and wellbeing treatments. Increasingly, frozen landscapes are becoming a rich source of visual inspiration, to be explored and appreciated before they are gone forever. With 95% sea ice in the Arctic already gone, the Arctic could be ice free in summer as soon as 2040.

Colours bleed into one another, a subtle nod to melting ice. Art references this retreat. Surfaces play with ideas around water in all states: vapour, liquid and frozen. A lot of glass is used, fluid shapes, geometry. The crevices of rocky landscapes.

There is a cosiness to this story and a balance of stillness and power in the colour palette. A tonal run of green to blue – Resene Sorrento and Resene Celeste through to Resene Smokescreen and Resene Optimist – nod to cooler temperatures. Orange, in the form of Resene Carpe Diem, brings a clean contrast while the warm red of Resene Hot August offers a comforting note of warmth. The two greys have both blue – Resene Half New Denim Blue – and red – Resene Pale Slate – undertones offering a calming neutral to all the colours in the palette.

Colours and products mentioned in this article

Stylist: Amber Armitage
Photography: Melanie Jenkins

blackwhite magazine

This is a magazine created for the industry, by the industry and with the industry – and a publication like this is only possible because of New Zealand and Australia's remarkably talented and loyal Resene specifiers and users.

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