And the Pantone Color of the Year 2021 is...

Illuminating Yellow and Ultimate Gray! Two colors that symbolize strength and optimism and that give us hope

After an especially difficult year worldwide, Pantone has announced its color of the year 2021. And it is not one, but two. The tones that will mark the year ahead are designed to create the feeling of a fresh sunrise over rocky terrain. These are Illuminating, a yellow that looks like the skin of a ripe lemon, and Ultimate Gray, a gray that resembles wet concrete. Their technical names are PANTONE 17-5104 + PANTONE 13-0647.

The symbolism, like every year, is very important. This time it is not a depressing gray but a gray that refers to practicality and solidity, like a rock. Yellow is neither frivolous nor fleeting, it invokes strength and positivity. The combination is, according to Pantone, the story of colors that encapsulate deeper feelings and that, when they meet, bring the promise of something happy and friendly. Made of a practical and solid material like a rock but at the same time warm.

This is the second time in 20 years that Pantone chooses two colors. The first time was in 2015, when Rose Quartz and Serenity Blue were chosen as the colors for 2016. That year, the two tones suggested issues of gender equality and fluidity. This year, however, the colors maintain another type of relationship: they complement and highlight each other.

It is also the first time that a gray has earned the honor of receiving such a mention and the second time for the color yellow. These two tones had been added to the Pantone color wheel earlier this year, along with Period Red, a color that seeks to make the female period less of a taboo subject.

According to Pantone representatives, the shades are mutually boosting, energizing, and contain hopeful subtext. The idea is not to polarize but to highlight their characteristics: to evoke a reset and the opportunity to see everything with different eyes, especially in the year that is coming to an end.

The one chosen for 2020 was Classic Blue, a color of elegant simplicity that, months before the declaration of the pandemic and subsequent confinement, already foreshadowed “a moment in which we crossed the threshold into a new era”.

Yes, the color of 2020 called to gravitate towards classic, honest tones and symbolized the desire to find solid foundations in busy times: it was a return to reflection, calm and simplicity.

A year earlier, in 2019, the color had been Living Coral, a bright and energetic shade inspired by the fascinating fauna of the deep ocean. At that time, Pantone presented their choice with a maritime video that showed corals and fish of the tone PANTONE 16-1546.

It was an optimistic tone that, at the same time, referred to a deeper theme: it paid homage to the Great Australian Barrier Reef, in danger of disappearing due to global warming.

Do you know how the Pantone Color of the Year is chosen? Many theories have been developed: from the ultra-rational ones that talk about algorithms to the funny ones that talk about drunkenness and chance. The truth is that, in total, 40 experts from around the world are responsible for these decisions. We tell you about it here.

What do you think of the colors chosen for 2021? you can leave your comments on the blog.

English version by @sergiofelizardo.

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