New color created to mark 2022
Pantone has unveiled its Color of the Year 2022, ‘Very Peri’. For the first time, the shade has been created by the company, a move intended to symbolize change and transition as the world adapts to the impact of the pandemic.
As the global color authority, Pantone announced the choice of the new shade of blue on Wednesday, designed to blend “the faithfulness and constancy of blue with the energy and excitement of red.”
The idea of the shade is to introduce “an empowering mix of newness,” as the company seeks to open people up “to a new vision as we rewrite our lives.”
In a press release, the vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, Laurie Pressman, stated that “creating a new color for the first time in the history of our Pantone Color of the Year educational color program reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place.”
While not specifically mentioning the Covid pandemic, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, Leatrice Eiseman, acknowledged that the “unprecedented change” people have experienced over the last few years drove the company’s decision.
It was really important for us to come up with a new color, because we have a very new vision of the world now.
Pantone’s yearly announcement sees the company explore its archive to select the most appropriate color to reflect the zeitgeist, including elements of fashion, design, and interior styles. The company first established the Color of the Year as a way to spark a conversation about how colors are “an integral part of our everyday lives” that we often “take for granted.” By picking a color that aims to reflect the year ahead, Pantone hopes to “create a buzz” around what it represents and the power it can have.
