If you have an excellent sense of colour and are famous among your friends and family for styling them, then working towards a career as a colour expert or colour consultant might be the perfect thing for you. You may be curious about what do these colour experts do? What do they accomplish? What type of education and training is essential to make an entry as a colour expert and how much is their salary? This blog here will discuss all these things and then you can decide if this is the right job for you and whether you can develop your favourite pastime into a rewarding career.
What do the color experts do?
Personal colour consultants advise their clients on determining the colour shades that suits them the best. Some colour experts also provide colour assistance relative to fashionable shades and colour combinations in hair and cosmetics, paper, paint, floor coverings and other permanent installations that are required for furnishing home interiors, offices and commercial establishments.
A personal color task is to get to know their clients better, providing expert advice on colors that suits their needs and requirements and elaborate on what colors to prevent from using. Diverse techniques are used by colour consultants for colour detection.
A color expert creates and develops attractive and engaging color designs by combining color psychology, latest trends, color design theories and demographic statistics for a successful and informed solution according to the clients’ goals. By using the science of visual and physiological effects on the human body, the colour experts work.
How to become a color expert?
If you want to develop a career as a colour expert, the first thing is to find out what education is required. A minimum bachelor’s degree is required and having a masters’ will be of added advantage once you apply for jobs.
In some states, it is required that the colour designers be certified. The International Association of Color Consultants (IACC) offers a membership scheme that is similar to the certification process.
The interested candidate should be knowledgeable about using tablets and computers and expertise in Computer-Aided Design (CAD), photo imaging and video creation applications with lots of creativity, detail-oriented and ample artistic talent.
Career paths of a color consultant
As you start working into your career, you may notice that you have undertaken more responsibilities and are moving towards a leadership position.
A career map can be used to determine the career goals through the career progression of a colour consultant. A fresh graduate may make a start in his career by working as an account executive later promote to the title of sales manager and finally with sufficient experience gained will end up as a general manager.
Pay scale of a color expert
Personal colour experts are dedicated business owners who have developed their own company from scratch based on their ideal colour philosophy. The payment sometimes goes up and down normally as it would be for a new business.
For a fresher, the beginning fee is $30 (INR 2100) on an hourly basis. Once the client base is established and people have become aware of the excellent services you provide, your hourly pay will jump up to $150 (INR 10,800) per hour.
Salary Structure of color experts
- Structure of hourly pay: When a client requires colour recommendations for a room or constant assistance then the hourly pay structure is the best way to be accountable for your time and expertise. Video consulting option to a client has to consider for discussing your offered services. This option can help to save money, access a large audience and work with the clients from your own house.
The fees suggested for hourly pay is $120 for consultation purposes and $60 per hour for maintenance meetings.
- Initial Consultation with monthly recurring fee: charging of a high fee of $120 for consultation that is followed up by a lower monthly fee of $30 for an unlimited digital career consultation. The ongoing services in this structure can be face-to-face meetings or unlimited text or phone calls or contact through email. An in-depth consultation is received by clients for a low monthly cost after which the clients can expect quick responses and proper advice by text, phone or email.
Career opportunities for color consultants
The colour experts can work in marketing, advertising or any aspect of design and styling. Job opportunities are available for colour experts in the following areas:
- Interior design, graphic design, fashion, and other design fields.
- Product placement and visual merchandising
- Product Line Development & Retail Buying
- Corporate branding and consulting
A consultation with a colour expert can solve all your colour challenges problems faced in your business or personal space.
– Samiya Firdous