Top 2019 Event and Party Colour Trends

FORECAST: Colour Trends

Traditionally, colour trends have tended to emerge from the fashion and interiors industries. However, with the domination of services like Shutterstock and other image and illustration marketplaces, data is strongly starting to influence the trends too. At the top of the chain for all colour directions is, of course, Pantone.

Living Coral is Pantone’s colour of the year and is full of life-affirming connotations such as ‘vibrant’, ‘spirited’ and ‘nourishment’. It creates stunning looks when matched with black, or pair it with citrus brights for a livelier look. We’re pretty sure it will be the colour du jour for 2019, along with similarly beautiful apricot and salmon.

ABOVE; Coral and black christening styling by Jimket Events.

Whilst Pantone’s colour is organic and grounded in the living world, the team at Shutterstock are predicting a slightly more different story with neon brights for 2019. The three dominant hues, are the techy influenced UFO Green, Plastic Pink, and Proton Purple.

It’s very telling that a digital organisation has picked three out-of-this-world super bright hues. These colours are usually more difficult to achieve on printed mediums, but are easily created in digital mediums (look up CMYK vs RGB to find out why). The three colours are definitely dominating online art. However, with technology progressing, it is possible to create such colour schemes in the real world, even on different mediums, as can be seen in the work of Sugar and Salt Cookies,

ABOVE: Neon cake; Sugar and Salt Cakes,

In this ultra bright landscape, even pastels are not expected to be muted, but rather will emerge as ‘punchy pastels’ with vivid pops of colour.

In the fashion world, NYFW S/S19 was all about ‘unrestrained colour’, with shades like fiesta, jester red, pink peacock, aspen gold and princess blue dominating.

With all these vivid lashings of colour, do not be surprised if seriously bright colour blocking pops up on surfaces everywhere.

Although many punters are putting their money on lots of lively colour, neutrals are expected to make their presence known too. Think browny and greyish based tones that can be seen on organic cotton and linens.

As a backlash to teal and forest green, alternative greens could dominate, such as seafoam green and khaki green.

ABOVE: Green custom wishing well: Sketch and Etch