Pantone's Color of the Year for 2023 is Here!
The Pantone Color Institute showcases a color each year that highlights color trends and reflects the current culture. Pantone has announced its color of the year for 2023. That color is Viva Magenta! According to Pantone, Viva Magenta is a “hybrid” shade that’s symbolic of our existence in the physical and digital world. Pantone describes this color as a “crimson red tone that presents a balance between warm and cool.” But why should you even care about this? I’m glad you asked.
WHO IS PANTONE? The Pantone Color Institute is revered globally as one of the, if not the leader in color expertise. Pantone is known for their color matching system, the Pantone Matching System (or, PMS). They developed this system in the 1960’s as a way to offer a platform that would simplify and bring cohesiveness to the world of color. Still wondering why you should care? Well, consider this scenario:
A bride is planning her dream wedding and the six members of her bridal party are from all across the United States. So, she tells the bridal party they can wear whatever dress they want as long as it’s turquoise. Now imagine the bride’s dismay when her bridal party is in six different shades of turquoise. This could have been avoided if she had given the party the Pantone number for the color of turquoise she wanted.
Just in case I didn’t get through with that scenario, let’s try this one:
You have selected the perfect gray wallpaper for your dining room – you know, that one with the damask pattern that shimmers when the light hits it just right. However, you only plan to paper one of the walls and you want the other 3 walls to be painted with the base color in the wallpaper. How will you get the paint color to match the wallpaper color? Well, if you’re lucky, your wallpaper will have a Pantone number listed on its information sheet. You can then take that Pantone number to your neighborhood paint store, and they will use that number to give you the perfect paint color for your walls.
A COLOR’S SSN Think of a color’s Pantone number as that color’s social security number. It’s a number that unique to that specific color. If the color is altered even slightly, it’s assigned a different number. So, the red star in the Macy’s logo will always be the same shade of red, regardless of which Macy’s you visit. This also makes it possible for a company to have a product manufactured on the other side of the world and feel confident that the color will be correct.
TRENDS & DIRECTIONS The Pantone Institute extensively researches trends in color to come up with their Color of the Year. Often the Color of the Year will also reflect what’s happening in society. Consider this color selection a guiding light showing us the way to color trends in fashion and in interior design. Once the Color of the Year is announced, get ready to see the color showing up on fashion runways, in home décor and in corporate branding and products.
You can watch the Color of the Year announcement on the Pantone website by following this link: PANTONE® USA | Pantone Color of the Year 2023 / Introduction
