unravel color
CMF R&D Project :
Exploring the potential of colors that change like emotions.
CMF stands for Color, Material, and Finish,
and represents one of the most important domains in industrial product design.
The CMF of industrial products plays multiple roles — encompassing function, brand, sustainability, and marketing — and is supported by a well-established logic that has been refined over many years.
On the other hand, what moves people is emotion — something uncertain and richly diverse.
Designers are constantly confronting these opposing elements, continuing to explore the relationship between products and people.
In this project, through experimental processes and prototyping,
we aim to unravel CMF — particularly Color as it connects to human emotion —
and explore new possibilities for the future of design.
"Is the color you see the same as what others see?"
Unravel of colors unstableness
Because color exists through the relationship between the refraction of light and the human eye, it inherently contains ambiguity.
Moreover, expressions like “a sad color” or “a fragrant color” show that color can not only convey different meanings depending on the viewer’s emotions, but even appear as entirely different hues.
That said, in industrial products, color variations seem at first glance to be devoid of such fluctuation.
However, for instance, when a faint layer of moisture appears on a surface, a color may suddenly take on a reddish tint, become paler, or even appear to transform into another shade entirely—revealing its mutable nature.
There lies a beautiful realization:
color is not a fixed entity, but a dynamic and ever-changing element.
“Envisioning the Colors of the Future”
Unravel for future standard
From the earliest days of shaping and decorating red clay to the modern age of pigments and printing, humanity has continually evolved its use of color, materials, and techniques in step with changing values and ways of life.
Each new era brings its own perspectives — and with them, the need for new colors.
Just as artists once created new mediums to capture the vitality of nature and human expression, the beauty we aim to realize in the near future may not be possible with today’s materials or finishes.
Now is the time to begin — to rethink the meaning of color and explore the evolving relationship between material, technology, and expression as we envision the colors of a new era.
“Because it’s Panasonic Design”
Unravel origin
We believe that new technologies can change everyday life and bring moments of happiness.
Technology is never created overnight — it grows through continuous reflection on future values and aesthetics.
Quality and peace of mind have always been essential to what we make.
For this reason, our products have long been designed with consistency and reliability in mind.
But today, and even more so in the future, “everyone” is no longer one collective — it’s a gathering of individuals, each with unique perspectives and emotions.
What matters now is not offering the same thing to all, but sharing a common sense of beauty and feeling.
Our goal is to create technologies and color designs that naturally connect with people’s diverse emotions and ways of living.
Discussing Color with Experts from Other Fields
Research
Etching of Condensation
“Etching of Condensation” is an experiment that artificially controls condensation to create textures and patterns (finishes) that change according to the environment and material — an exploration to observe how color transforms through these variations.
By embracing the beauty of natural phenomena, it introduces a sense of openness — an element of chance and room for change — that stimulates human imagination.
It is a CMF expression that shifts with the relationship between people, objects, and space.
