AIC Annual Report 2016

2015 was a year of significant anniversaries for several AIC member countries: Bulgaria 35 years, Great Britain 75 years, Spain 50 years and Sweden 50 years. Their enduring appeal and range of activities show that they have successfully changed with the times and remained relevant to the interests of both artistic and industrial practice. 2015 was also decreed by the UN as the International Year of Light, focusing on light science and its applications, to raise global awareness of how light‐based technologies can provide solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health. Because light is inseparably associated with colour, the year also raised the international profile of colour science and its many applications, particularly through the International Colour Day (ICD). Diverse activities celebrating ICD on 21 March are reported here for Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Finland, Great Britain, Korea, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and Taiwan. A special report on ICD has been compiled by Prof Maria João Durão (pp.41‐42). 
The highlight of the year was the AIC mid‐term conference in Tokyo (p.12), hosted with outstanding charm and efficiency by the Colour Society of Japan. Everything was ideal: the presentations, the social programme and the venue were stimulating and enjoyable, all in the best traditions of AIC. Especially memorable was the outing to the sumo wrestling.
Thank you very much to all the AIC member societies and study groups who have contributed the reports in these pages. Especially worthy of note are the illumination of a whole building façade in Brazil (p.16), coloured cocktails in Canada (p.18), a national colour training scheme for school teachers in Chile (p.19), a chromatic piano concert at Notre Dame de Paris (p.22), the handover of the presidency in Hungary from one Prof Nemcsics to another (p.25), a major research project on ‘Colour and Quality in higher dimensions’ in Norway (p.29), exploration of ‘The unexpected’ in Sweden (p.33), experiments into colour constancy in Thailand (p.36), and an award for outstanding service to Rolf Kuehni in the USA (p.37). Two societies, China and Spain, have adopted new logos with strong colour graphic design. In the Study Group on the Language of Colour it was a special pleasure to welcome the new Co‐Chairs, my colleagues Dimitris Mylonas and Prof Galina Paramei (p.46).
The strength of colour design as a discipline within the AIC community continues unabated. Many of the activities, projects and teaching strategies reported by members show colour in the context of design, finding colourful solutions that fit within the envelope of constraints imposed by the client. Through the theory and practice of colour design, and by bringing together practising colour designers, the AIC is able to make a significant contribution to consumer products, living spaces and human well‐being around the world.

– Lindsay MacDonald, Editor