Every year, Pantone announce their colour of the year: this year it is Living Coral. Strangely, I have found myself drawn to all shades of orange recently, from bright orange to use as an accent colour, to a pinky-orange watermelon shade to use on a larger area. Living Coral is a calming and serene rather than a fiery orangey-red, an antidote to what’s really going on in the world. Conversely, it is also quite energising.
How does Pantone decide which colour they should promote in this way?
They spend a lot of time and effort analysing trends. These could be colours used by new artists, the renewed popularity of established artists, fashion, film, the design industries in general, social media, up and coming travel destinations … and more. This is quite a feat, as different colours are popular In different countries, and also have different meaning depending on the nationality of the viewer.
Pantone collaborates with businesses and brands to advise them on colour, so you can bet that we will see Living Coral a lot in 2019.
The photo library Shutterstock has also released their colour forecast for 2019 and the results are quite different, as are the ways in which data was collected. What they did was to analyse the hues of the images their customers were downloading most frequently. Three colours topped the bill: a lurid green, a bright magenta and a vibrant purple – quite different from Pantone’s top colour.
There were also variations in countries. The UK’s favourite colour was a lilac shade, whereas the top USA shade was an emerald green.
So, two quite different forecasts! There’s no doubt that all of them will become popular. I think that if people see a colour frequently, whether on social media or in the shops, they’ll become accustomed to it and eventually start to adopt it.
What do you think? Do you like the forecasters’ favourites?
About the author
Annette Peppis leads the team at Peppis Designworks, a creative hub of established publishing industry experts who create books, branding, marketing material and design templates for leading publishers and businesses. Keep in touch by subscribing to Annette’s bi-monthly emails.
