Pantone has named PANTONE 19-4052, Classic Blue, as the Pantone Color of the Year for 2020, which the company describes as “a timeless and enduring hue elegant in its simplicity” and “suggestive of the sky at dusk.”
“We are living in a time that requires trust and faith. It is this kind of constancy and confidence that is expressed by PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue, a solid and dependable blue hue we can always rely on,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. “Imbued with a deep resonance, PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue provides an anchoring foundation. A boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue encourages us to look beyond the obvious to expand our thinking; challenging us to think more deeply, increase our perspective and open the flow of communication.”
Pantone has named a “color of the year” for the past 21 years. To arrive at its selection each year, the Pantone Color Institute looks for new color influences from sources including the entertainment industry and films in production, traveling art collections and new artists, fashion, all areas of design, popular travel destinations, as well as new lifestyles, playstyles and socio-economic conditions. Influences may also stem from new technologies, materials, textures, and effects that impact color, relevant social media platforms and sporting events that capture worldwide attention.
“The Pantone Color of the Year highlights the relationship between trends in color and what is taking place in our global culture at a moment in time, a color that reflects what individuals feel they need that color can hope to answer,” says Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. “As society continues to recognize color as a critical form of communication, and a way to express and affect ideas and emotions, designers and brands should feel inspired to use color to engage and connect. The Pantone Color of the Year selection provides strategic direction for the world of trend and design, reflecting the Pantone Color Institute’s year-round work doing the same for designers and brands.”
Pantone has also translated PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue into a multi-sensory experience to reach a greater diversity of people to provide everyone with an opportunity to engage with the Color of the Year 2020 in their own unique way. Pantone has collaborated with a number of sensory experts from the worlds of music, food, fashion, beauty and technology to envision PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue as a sound, a smell, a taste, and a feeling. The company says that taken together, all of these sensory inputs have been designed to inspire creatives and consumers to think about color differently, to uncover new patterns and associations, and to encourage them to create new experiences that speak to people’s hearts as well as their minds.
“As we all head into a new era, we wanted to challenge ourselves to find inspiration from new sources that not only evolve our Color of the Year platform, but also help our global audiences achieve richer and more rewarding color experiences,” Pressman says. “This desire, combined with the emotional properties of PANTONE 19-4052 Classic Blue, motivated us to expand beyond the visual, to bring the 2020 Pantone Color of the Year to life through a multi-sensory experience.”
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