A children’s lounge space designed by Amy Miller Weinstein pops with illuminating yellow.
ARTS&LIFE
BETH SINGER
AT HOME
Color Combo In Ultimate Gray and Illuminating, Pantone’s new dual colors of the year break free from a pandemic state of mind. LYNNE KONSTANTIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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ost of us have been happy to say “so long” to 2020. Close to a year of a global pandemic has had an effect on almost everyone — and almost everything — including the world of design. Pantone is best-known in the fashion, beauty, graphic design and home design industries for its colormatching system — and the Pantone Color Institute has provided color reports and forecasts since 1962 (the year of Cerulean Blue). The recently revealed Pantone Color of the Year for 2021 is a direct reaction to the mood of 2020 and a hopeful look forward to 2021. And for the second time in its history, the color is actually two colors.
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“Ultimate Gray” reflects on 2020 as a year — while also bringing a sense of comfort — and “Illuminating” is full of hope and positivity for the future. “It is a pairing of two independent colors that come together to create an aspirational color pairing conjoining deeper feelings of thoughtfulness with the optimistic promise of a sunshine-filled day,” according to the institute. “The selection of two independent colors highlight how different elements come together to express a message of strength and hopefulness that is both enduring and uplifting, conveying the idea that it’s not about one color or one person — it’s about more than
one. The union of an enduring Ultimate Gray with the vibrant yellow Illuminating expresses a message of positivity supported by fortitude,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a color combination that gives us resilience and hope.” Amy Miller Weinstein, owner of AMW Design Studio in Birmingham, agrees that the shades have an emotional impact. “For me, the 2021 Pantone Colors of the Year evoke a ’60s vibe,” she says. “With the world in such upheaval, it feels synchronistic to be drawing on emotions that were so much a part of that era — and pursuing a hopefulness that in our differences, we can find our connections.” In a children’s lounge space in a client’s home, Weinstein anchored the room in tones of soft, soothing gray — brushed metals, cloudy cabinetry and ashy-finished flooring — but contrasts with a pop of lemony yellow in the form of a sink-
