Every year, artists and designers across the world hold their breath as they wait for the Pantone Color Institute to announce its Color of the Year. This past December, Pantone raised eyebrows by announcing not one, but two colors for 2021.
Why two? What goes into choosing the colors? Most importantly, why should we care? Here’s a quick rundown on Pantone’s Color of the Year and why it matters.
The History of Pantone
The Pantone Color Institute first rose to fame in 1963 for its system of numbered color charts to help standardize ink colors used in printing. Before then, colors with the same name would be wildly different between various printers and mediums. To help solve this problem, Pantone developed a universal system that could be used by printers to help ensure consistency of color by using the same formula for the same color every time.
There are two Pantone color systems: The Pantone Matching System (PMS) and the Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors (FHI) system. The PMS system is widely used for graphics, in formats such as digital, print or screen printing. The FHI system is used for mediums such as textiles or paint.
For example, if a small business owner wants to print her company logo onto face masks, she can select Turquoise, PANTONE 15-5519, and know it will be exactly the shade she intended. (Turquoise, by the way, was the 2010 Color of the Year.)
Using these universal color standards, artists, designers and other creatives are guaranteed color accuracy and consistency.
Color of the Year
Over the years, The Pantone Color Institute grew to be a global influence in color, art and design. In 2000, it announced its first ever Color of the Year: Cerulean (PANTONE 15-4020). This peaceful blue color, its announcement explained, invokes feelings of tranquility and calm, and was intended to set the tone for a new millennium.
This color choice set the stage for Pantone’s tradition of choosing a color for each year. The color it chose was more than just a specific shade of red, green or blue. Each color selection represented a moment in cultural history.
Every year for the past two decades, Pantone’s color specialists have looked for inspiration from all over the world in areas such as fashion, food, travel art and interior design. They take those elements of influence and channel them into a color that represents a cultural concept. For example, 2017’s Color of the Year was Greenery (PANTONE 15-0343). It was meant to represent reassurance and reconnection with nature after a year of political turmoil. Pantone called it “nature’s neutral.”
The color for the upcoming year is announced each December.
2021 Color(s) of the Year
In December, Pantone announced the 2021 Colors of the Year: PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating (yellow). This marked only the second time in Pantone’s 20-plus year history that two colors have been chosen.
Pantone first chose two colors in 2016: Rose Quartz (PANTONE 13-1520) and Serenity (PANTONE 15-3919). These colors were blended together to reflect “connection and wellness as well as a soothing sense of order and peace.” The two shades were also meant to challenge traditional gendered associations of pink and blue.
While the 2016 colors were blended together, the two shades chosen for 2021 are meant to be complementary, but separate. The light grey and vivid yellow, according to Pantone, are meant to be “a marriage of color conveying a message of strength and hopefulness that is both enduring and uplifting.” Pantone’s announcement also described this color combination as the light at the end of the tunnel after a difficult year.
Laurie Pressman, Pantone’s vice president, explained the reasoning in an interview with the New York Times. “No one color could get across the meaning of the moment,” she said. “We all realized we cannot do this alone.”
Are you looking to stay on trend with your color choices in 2021? We have both 2021 Colors of the Year, Ultimate Gray and Illuminating, as well as hundreds more available to use on virtually anything in our vast catalogue. No matter what you’re creating, we’re here to help your vision come to life in vibrant color. Give us a call today at (850) 222-1003 to get started!
