Pantone 2021 Color of the Year

Every year, Pantone's color announcement comes with much hype and anticipation as the design world awaits for the “what’s next” color themes for all things in design. This design is not limited to any one form or space. Pantone design colors transcend many industries and mediums, in a sense guiding the fabric of our “feeling” into the new year.

With 2020 being somewhat of a unique experience for most, needless to say, the world has high hopes for 2021 and Pantone raised up to the challenge and synced up the general feeling of humanity by announcing their new colors with that in mind. This year, in the hopes of extending the new found hope of our human mind and spirit into world of design, Pantone's 2021 color announcements are basically of “Strength” and “Hope”. A light take on an already popular gray, called Ultimate Gray 17-5104 and a slightly desaturated sunshine yellow called Illuminating 13-0647.

In the announcement statement by the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, Leatrice Eiseman said, “The union of an enduring Ultimate Gray with the vibrant yellow Illuminating expresses a message of positivity supported by fortitude. Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a color combination that gives us resilience and hope. We need to feel encouraged and uplifted; this is essential to the human spirit.”

A Pantone spokesperson went on to say: “Emboldening the spirit, the pairing of PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray + PANTONE 13-0647 highlights our innate need to be seen, to be visible, to be recognized, to have our voices heard. A combination of color whose ties to insight, innovation and intuition, and respect for wisdom, experience, and intelligence inspires regeneration, pressing us forward toward new ways of thinking and concepts.”

It's easy to see that throughout our world our moods and actions are highly affected by colors, color codes, and color combinations. At this time when our world functions in turmoil, whether or not we as humans can or cannot change the course of the overall picture on a global scale, we most definitely can change our own personal outlooks and perceptions on any situations or set of consequences that we face. Maybe with the help of color, guiding us as individuals and as a whole into the new beginnings of 2021 we can utilize the strength of the Illuminating yellow and Ultimate Gray as one of our support systems in staying strong with change.

For the designers in us, color is usually one of the primary factors that makes or breaks any project or creative endeavor, so let use the magic of color to make it work.