Last week Pantone released not one but two color choices for 2021. Pantone’s color of the year always has an existential meaning, reflecting some social or economical dilemma in that current era, and arguably no two colors such as these have ever spoken so clearly to all of us. This year these color choices undoubtedly draw a line to the pendulum of feelings we’ve all experienced this year from tragic gloom to a rising hope.
Photo Credit : Pantone
The first color chosen was Illuminating, the bright, elementary sun, ripe lemon – yellow. While this captures the support and hope we all need, one color could not capture the full picture of our recent times. For only the second time in Pantone’s 22 years, another color was chosen. To complement the tone, our more forefront emotion was brought onto the scene – Ultimate Gray. The gray of imminent rain clouds, wet sidewalks and furry kittens.
Photo Credit : Pantone
Surprisingly, not meant to symbolize gloom, Pantone offers a more thoughtful explanation for the soft gray “It’s a dependable gray,” Ms. Eiseman reports to the New York Times. Proving in fact gray can be more than dreary, like the gray in our grandparents which mirrors wisdom, and the gray of steel that reflects unbreakable strength. The team at Pantone certainly dug deep this year finding ways in which we share the spirit of optimism in these shades.
Photo Credit : Pantone
Alone Illuminating would be overly cheery, insensitive to reality and Ultimate Gray would be dismal and depressing. Together, the pair relays optimism and reliability. They are the light at the end of the tunnel, the sun coming up over dark mountains. This year the demand for a meaningful sentiment was high but Pantone surely delivered.
What does any of this actually have to do with future products of 2021? Well Pantone spends months, if not nearly the entire year, researching and analyzing, interior design, fashion, and consumer trends to predict and influence the poplar colors of the new year. Illuminating and Ultimate Gray will indeed trickle down into the everyday clothing and products in 2021.