Presenter - Margaret Portillo

Margaret Portillo Ph, D., Associate Dean, College of Design
Afternoon Breakout Session

Color Planning from the Inside Out: A Color Planning Framework

This presentation will share an evidence-based approach to color planning for the built environment that realizes the potential of color to impact people and space. Integrating theory and research, the color planning framework will be discussed in relation to historic and contemporary design projects, considering compositional, symbolic, behavioral, preferential, and pragmatic color dimensions. The framework is based on a national study of noted designers has been replicated and expanded over time. The real-life cases, upon which the study was built, speak to the importance of context and location, purpose of the building, and the color acuity, inspiration, and imagination of the design. Finally, the framework integrates formal compositional considerations of color--truth to materials, lighting and the interaction of hue, chroma, value defining space and form--while considering client preferences and engagement, market trends, project potentials and constraints.

Bio

At the University of Florida, Dr. Margaret “Meg” Portillo serves as Associate Dean in College of Design, Construction, and Planning. Previously as chair of the UF Department of Interior Design, she very much enjoyed working with the department’s exceptional students, talented faculty, and Engage Design Lab interdisciplinary initiatives. In her scholarship, Dr. Portillo has developed a framework for color planning strategies that can be applied as a springboard for integrating compositional and person-environment dimensions of applied color in interior spaces. Drawing on mixed research methods, her award-winning scholarship has been the subject of invited and refereed presentations domestically and in Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Finland. She has taught university-level color courses and has advised graduate students on thesis and dissertation topics focusing on color in the built environment. Meg has long enjoyed giving color and design thinking workshops for students and practitioners in fields, ranging from landscape architecture to nursing.