The tradition of choosing colors by the American Pantone Institute dates back to 1999. This year the brand surprised its observers and for the second time in history decided to indicate as many as two colors. Recall that the first winning duo (in 2016) were pastel shades of pink and blue – rose quartz and serenity.
Why was it decided on two colors? The matter was commented in an interesting way by Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, referring to the events that most strongly affected humanity in the past year:
It has become clear that there will never be one color that can express everything. Two colors send the message that we need each other.
The winning duo for 2021 were announced as shades of grey and yellow, specifically PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Grey and PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating Yellow. They are primarily associated with independence, energy and impartiality. Some also see them as an interesting combination of strength and hope.
For this year’s selection, Pantone also points out that yellow and gray tell a story of social uncertainty, brought on largely by the coronavirus pandemic and global lockdown.
Contrary to appearances, the color of the year selection is not a subjective indication by committee members. The whole process is preceded by a detailed analysis of trends on the basis of which their direction is predicted for the coming year. This is also confirmed by the words of Pressman herself, who somewhat jokingly comments
We are not looking into a crystal ball to make this choice.
And, although colors seem to be a mundane and purely aesthetic issue, the popularity of specific colors can be influenced, for example, by important world events.
Polish brands were not indifferent to the announced choice, and they immediately picked up on the topic and did not miss a great opportunity to use elements of real time marketing in their actions.
Main article photo: photo by Rodion Kutsaev, source: unsplash.com
