84 Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13 (2) DOI: 10.23738/CCSJ.130210b 

Umbrella Diagram: 1981-2021, five decades 

of forecasts and CMF design  
Clino Trini Castelli

1
 

1 
Castelli.Design, work@castellidesign.it 

Corresponding author: Clino Trini Castelli (work@castellidesign.it) 

 

 

ABSTRACT 

The Umbrella Diagram, developed by Clino Trini Castelli since 1978, is a fundamental tool to configure CMF 

design languages and forecast historical color and material trends survey. The tool, based on decades, is 

represented by arches instead of an evolution of a timeline. This cyclical progress proved to be premonitory 

of the strong changes observed between the color languages of the decades. The umbrella shape of the 

diagram stems from the coexistence of large arches (historical trends) with smaller arches (fashion trends), 

frequently in conflict. Castelli first turned to the past of the 70s, 60s and 50s, testing his format backwards 

based on what was already observed. He then applied the same principles and parameters, looking rather 

at the 1980s and, till today, to the other four upcoming decades. The Umbrella Diagram was conceived as a 

proprietary tool of Castelli Design and reserved for his international customers and educational activities. 

 

KEYWORDS CMF design and forecasting, Iconic Colors, Syntactic Colors, Color Presence, Color 

Distribution 

 

RECEIVED 18/10/2021; REVISED 08/11/2021; ACCEPTED 10/11/2021 

 

 

 



Umbrella Diagram: 1981-2021, five decades of forecasts and CMF design 

 Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13 (2) DOI: 10.23738/CCSJ.130210b 85 

1. Introduction 

This of the AIC 2021 Milan congress is the first public 

presentation of the Umbrella Diagram executed outside 

of a professional or educational confidential context. 

Despite the current presentation of this proprietary tool is 

taking place exactly forty years after its creation (1980-

1981), to this day continue not to be any web recurrences 

on search engines, except one not-authorized imitations 

that appeared several years ago using the same graph 

and the same four basic parameters.  

Intending to take over the design company CDM - 

Consulenti Design Milano, Clino Trini Castelli had already 

begun, in 1978, the search for a tool that would make it 

possible to predict the identity of colors and materials 

languages in advance, as well the related trends.  

With the advent of the additive color synthesis era (then 

completely unnoticed) Castelli founded and directed the 

Colorterminal IVI in Milan (1978).  

The Colorterminal was the first color research center for 

design and architecture in the world, enabling the 

chromatic potential discover of the additive RGB 

synthesis.  

The Umbrella Diagram was going to be a new dialogic 

tool - like the Gretl’s Diagram (1977) now in the CCI 

Collection of Centre Pompidou in Paris - proper for 

guiding and training also the designers of the first 

international customers by Castelli Design, including 

Louis Vuitton. 

With CDM, founded in 1974, Castelli introduced the 

“extensive vision” of the metaproject in the professional 

field through the Design Primario, this in opposition to the 

“intensive vision” of traditional design process.  

This had led to the development of qualitative aspects of 

modernity which was still unsolved, as evidenced by the 

success of the Colordinamo and Decorattivo manuals of 

the Centro Design Montefibre (1974-1978). 

 

Figure 1. The Umbrella Diagram graph with small and large arches inspired by the Kircher’s Diagram (1646). 



Umbrella Diagram: 1981-2021, five decades of forecasts and CMF design 

 Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13 (2) DOI: 10.23738/CCSJ.130210b 86 

 

Figure 2: The Umbrella Diagram Chromatic Nature: Syntactic Color vs Iconic Color. 

In the CDM - Consulenti Design Milano, beyond Clino 

Trini Castelli, Andrea Branzi and Massimo Morozzi, also 

participated for a while the architects Ettore Sottsass and 

Alessandro Mendini.  

Since 1980 the international activity of Castelli Design - 

with Vitra in Europe, Herman Miller in the USA and 

Mitsubishi in Japan - has pointed to a great development 

of CMF design (Colors, Materials and Finishes), an 

acronym born in 1981 with the CMF project for Herman 

Miller by Clino Castelli. 

Umbrella Diagram graph: 

− Color Arches (Historical Trend arch, Fashion Trend 

arch). 

− Time Lapse (Run-Out or Deviation: anticipation or 

delay from the ideal Historical Trend). 

The Umbrella Diagram graph (Figure 1) is derived from 

the interlaced arches of Kircher’s Diagram (1646) 

published on the art magazine Data Arte.  

The article I diagrammi del colore: Trini Castelli (1978) 

describes the evolution of the color diagrams found in 

ancient books and other documents provided to the 

Colorterminal by Faber Birren, the founder of the Yale 

University Color Library, with which Castelli had begun to 

collaborate since 1977.  

The Umbrella Diagram is a tool based on decade 

divisions, represented by large arches instead of the 

classic linear evolution of a timeline. The main idea was 

to connect a precise historical color language to a 

decadic trend, already started from the 50s.  

This cyclical progress proved to be premonitory of the 

strong changes observed between the languages of the 

various decades. 

The umbrella shape of the diagram derives from the 

coexistence of large arches (historical trend) with smaller 

arches (fashion trends) that develop, often in conflict with 

the historical trend of the overlying decade: Raimondo 

(1982).  



Umbrella Diagram: 1981-2021, five decades of forecasts and CMF design 

 Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13 (2) DOI: 10.23738/CCSJ.130210b 87 

When Clino Castelli developed the diagram, starting 

from 1978, he first turned to the past of the 70s, 60s 

and 50s, testing the format backwards based on what 

was already known. 

He then applied the same principles, looking instead at 

the 1980s of the upcoming decades, thus anticipating 

the great novelty of Post-modern and Memphis 

polychromatic languages, with their Syntactic and 

Tonal colors: Lentati (1984). 

The qualities that make the Umbrella Diagram tool 

dialogic and peculiar stand in a specific articulation of 

the factors of judgment and evaluation of the inherent 

nature of color (such as: Iconic color / Syntactic color) 

(Figure 2), on the chromatic characteristics of the 

colors in use and their application on objects and 

environments (such as: color Presence / color 

Distribution) (Figure 3). 

These factors are always connected to the social, 

economic and technological contexts of the individual 

decades (such as: Socioeconomic context / 

Technoscientific context). 

Umbrella Diagram’s original Chromatic Parameters 

(Table 1) and context: 

− Chromatic Nature (Iconic Color, Syntactic Color) 

− Chromatic Features (Color Presence, Color 

Distribution) 

− Historical Context (Socioeconomic Context, 

Technoscientific Context) 

 

2. Umbrella Diagram’s Historical Trend Identities 

The entire Umbrella Diagram historical trends identities 

show a sharp decadic opposition jump between the 

Chromatic Nature languages (Figure 4), that are 

alternatively Iconic and Syntactic. This is probably due to 

the need to reach the maximum possible sensation of 

chromatic novelty. 

 

 

Figure 3: The Umbrella Diagram Color Distribution feature. “The gentleman and the rascal”: paradox effect of inverted 

color distribution on a same black & white color presence. 



Umbrella Diagram: 1981-2021, five decades of forecasts and CMF design 

 Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13 (2) DOI: 10.23738/CCSJ.130210b 88 

 

Table 1: All the parameters seen simultaneously with a hint on 20s decade, that marks the end of the modernity. 

 

 

Figure 4: The Umbrella Diagram Color Language evolution graph that show the alternation of Chromatic Nature. 



Umbrella Diagram: 1981-2021, five decades of forecasts and CMF design 

 Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13 (2) DOI: 10.23738/CCSJ.130210b 89 

 

Figure 5: The Eighties Color Trend with Tonal and Syntactic languages. 

 

  

Figure 6: The incoming decade of the Nineties with the Second Ecologism created a strong mutation 

of the Color Trend in relation to the Eighties. 



Umbrella Diagram: 1981-2021, five decades of forecasts and CMF design 

 Color Culture and Science Journal Vol. 13 (2) DOI: 10.23738/CCSJ.130210b 90 

3. Author’s statement on the Umbrella Diagram 

“[...] we analyze trends with an umbrella diagram based 

on decades, which I elaborated at the end of the 

seventies in order to look back and to look into the future. 

This diagram is something very important for me [...]”: 

Mitchell (1996: 68). 

The diagram format and images were closely linked to 

the issues that could interest my customers, as the field 

of new materials (Europe, Japan), automotive production 

and related CMF languages: Takehara (1984) (Japan, 

Europe, USA), large office systems (Europe, USA, 

Japan, Australia), office equipment, including large 

servers (Europe, Japan), etc. This meant, for example, 

that for each decade was selected a Formula 1 racing car 

because, in addition to having a livery suited to the 

emerging color schemes of the moment, in most cases 

was also potentially the winning stable.   

In addition to the Second Ecologism of the nineties: Trini 

Castelli (1995), where Color Distribution (Metachromatic) 

became irrelevant, the Umbrella Diagram has also 

highlighted the Natural and Achromatic experience of the 

First Ecologism of the seventies (Club of Rome, 1968-

1973) to which I actively participated in its promotion with 

the magazine Domus. 

However, the most sensational anticipation came with the 

publication of the book Transitive Design: Trini Castelli 

(1999) and the presentation of the languages of the zero 

years of the new century where instead the duality of 

Color Distribution (Heterochromatic) became relevant 

again. Transitive Design also anticipated the visions of 

Transmodernity that anticipated the great ecological 

transition that began after the current global crisis due to 

the pandemic. This crisis was somehow anticipated by 

the alarming emergence of the Dissonant harmonies, the 

extreme languages and Hyperchromatic colors of the 

10s. 

The Umbrella Diagram has been doubly important to me 

because over time it has allowed to maintain constant 

attention to certain signals coming from human ambitions 

and emotions connected to the global “sentiment of 

color”. This is how I had the certainty of having 

definitively emerged from what was the long and 

extraordinary human experience of modernity, to now 

enter in the 20s of Transitive Times floating season. 

 

4. Conflict of interest declaration 

The authors declare that there is no any conflict of 

interest concerning the content of this article. 

5. Funding source declaration 

This paper did not receive any specific grant from funding 

agencies in the public, commercial, or not for profit 

sector.  

 

6. Short biography of the author 

Clino Trini Castelli (b. 1944) designer, artist and design 

theorist lives and works in Milan. Internationally known for 

CMF design (Color, Material and Finishes) of which he 

was the initiator, Castelli introduced the "No-form" 

renewal of plastic languages applied to industrial 

products through the tools of Design Primario. As 

opposed to traditional compositional methods, Clino Trini 

Castelli has focused on the design of the more intangible 

aspects of figuration, like color and material, light and 

sound, emphasizing the virtues of a sensorial approach 

to art and design. Since the early 1970s this has made 

him a pioneer in research on the emotional identity of 

products in the industrial sector. His work has received 

important European, American and Japanese prizes, 

including two ADI Compasso d’Oro awards. 

 

7. Acknowledgment  

Special thanks to: Esperanza Nunez, Antonio Petrillo, 

Claudia Raimondo, Anna Barbara, Paolo Lorini, Manuela 

Bonaiti, Daniela Domina. 

 

References 

Lentati, G. 1984. Il colore in versione tonale policromatica. Ufficiostile 1: 

44-45. 

Mitchell, T. C. 1996. New Thinking in Design: Conversations on Theory 

and Practice. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. 

Raimondo, C. 1982. La tendenza tonale e il colore negli anni ’80 

(Intervista a Clino T. Castelli sui trend). Supplemento Interni Annual ’82 

– Colore, Interni 316: 8-13. 

Takehara, A. 1984. The Philosopher of Color Clino Castelli. Car Styling 

48: 13-36. 

Trini Castelli, C. 1978. I diagrammi del colore. Data Arte 31: 12-17. 

Trini Castelli, C. 1995. At the native state: rise and destiny of the 

ecological product. In: Design of Amenity. Selected Paper of 

International Symposium. AA.VV., ed. Kyushu: University Press, 464- 

468. 

Trini Castelli, C. 1999. Transitive Design: A Design Language for the 

Zeroes. Milano: Electa.