Coloring Our Years

Written by SHARON LOBO

Illustrated by ALYSSA LINDBLOM

PANTONE HAS BEEN CONSIDERED the global authority on color for as long as the company has been in existence. Pantone was founded in 1962, and its intricate color system began in 1963. This signature color system provided an important service by solving the issue of color matching in the printing industry.

Pantone has worked to ensure that every color, tone, and tint has a number to classify it. Beyond its color system, Pantone has also shifted the ways in which color has impacted design and consumerism.

In 2000 the Pantone Color Institute created the Pantone Color of the Year’ award as a concept to be used in branding, marketing, and the creative industry. The award is meant to be a trendsetting initiative that allows brands to coordinate their products around each year’s respective color. By doing so, a synergy is created between brands, and a collective theme is established.

The Pantone Color Institute picks each year’s color through well-researched color trend forecasting. Trends throughout the year are carefully noted and studied. There is a big emphasis on fashion, social media, and politics that play a role in which color is chosen, though Pantone claims that “the colors choose themselves.” The process is tedious and requires the efforts of a 20 person team that begins their global research early each year. Pantone notes that the color should speak to all audiences, and to ensure this, the team gathers representatives from various countries to present ideas and opinions before deciding on a color.

The color chosen is more than just a color. It is a visual representation of a year’s worth of events, and it is packed with significance. The color of the year for 2022 is PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri. The theme of this year’s color is looking ahead. Pantone says the new color’s “courageous presence encourages personal inventiveness and creativity.” For the first time, Pantone invented an entirely new shade for color of the year. Pantone said that the creation of a new color is a direct reflection of the new world we live in now. It reflects the changes that have taken place after a period of isolation and uncertainty due to COVID-19.

Very Peri is a mix of periwinkle blue with violet-red undertones. The blue tones were created to represent the blue light of glowing screens that come from an era of futurism and the digital world. Blue also signifies calmness, security, and order, while red signifies energy and excitement. Very Peri is described as a color that moves between a digital and physical world—a tribute to both our online and physical personas. To further highlight how this color represents the new world we live in, Pantone announced the color in an immersive art gallery at ARTECHOUSE in New York, combining the concept of traditional art with new technology. The exhibit also featured an NFT room, which demonstrates just how much the color speaks to current socioeconomic trends.

Very Peri is a true testament to the year 2022 during which we learned how to overcome a pandemic, mobilize to fight social structures in place, and move forward to address our environmental crisis—all things that could make or break our future.