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January 28, 2008—Swatchbox Technologies, a leader in interactive home design software tools, has developed an innovative tool for Sears’ Manage My Home site that encourages users to experiment with color combinations from Sears’ exclusive collections of interior and exterior paint products.

“We’re proud to be working with such respected brands as Sears, Manage My Home, and Dutch Boy on this project to feature paint collections carried exclusively by Sears including Easy Living, Barbie, Ty Pennington Style, Hot Wheels, and Dutch Boy Dimensions,” says Michael Brunzell, SeniorVice President of Sales and Marketing at Swatchbox. “The sheer size of the Dutch Boy color catalog was exciting to handle during development—as were the vibrant new collections featured on the site.”

The Sears Manage My Home site was built to assist homeowners with a variety of tasks involved in managing a home; included in this interactive website are instruction manuals, calendars, informational guides and virtual design tools. To add to this arsenal of homeowner helpers, Swatchbox Technologies was brought in to develop a new virtual design tool called Virtual Color.

Regular visitors of the Manage My Home site as well as first-time browsers can access the Virtual Color application through the Interactive Tools page of this user-friendly site. Five categories are available for selection: general living spaces, personal spaces, kitchen and dining spaces, children’s spaces, and exteriors. Within each of these categories, six to nine environments appear; the user may then choose a space similar to the one they wish to paint.

The huge volume of available colors can be overwhelming, but this tool makes the task of redecorating fun and creative. By moving a bar across the spectrum of available paint colors, the user can locate a general color block that is appealing and then instantly apply the virtual paint to the space they selected. Users who prefer a bit of guidance can select a particular paint collection. The various collections carry complimentary colors that would suite particular styles—for instance the Barbie collection provides a focus on colors for a young girl’s room.

The Virtual Color tool allows users to experience the way a color would look along side other colors in the room or adjoining rooms and under realistic lighting conditions. Users not only manipulate wall colors, but they can also virtually paint the trim, the ceiling, curtains and other various pieces of furniture. Michael Brunzell of Swatchbox reports, “Virtual Color is expected to not only drive sales and increase brand recognition, but also increase consumer satisfaction. This tool will enable buyers to bring color into their homes with confidence.”

 

About Swatchbox Technologies

 

Swatchbox Technologies™ (www.swatchbox.com), located in Westborough, Massachusetts, is a leader in virtual design tools for the home. The company’s Swatchbox Rendering Engine enables homeowners to design and decorate using digital photographs of their own homes to make better design decisions before embarking on home improvement projects. Swatchbox works with manufacturers, retailers and online publishers. Manufacturers of home design products gain increased awareness and purchase consideration of their products through interactive product placement within the company’s home design tools. Retailers provide homeowners with design tools that encompass entire home improvement projects and enjoy higher average sales. Online publishers that offer home design tools on their websites benefit from an increase in traffic, session duration, user registrations and incremental advertising revenue. Swatchbox Technologies clients include Ace, Alcoa, Armstrong, Benjamin Moore & Co., Clopay, Dupont, Hearst Corporation, Lowe’s, Pittsburgh Paints, Scripps Networks, Sears, Sherwin Williams, Time Warner, True Value, Valspar, and Wayne-Dalton.