Will Pantone's 2021 Colors of the Year Live Up to Their Hype?

Let’s hope so! After all, “Classic Blue” didn’t exactly bring everything we expected in 2020. When it was announced a year ago that Pantone’s Color of the year, Classic Blue, was was chosen because of its reflective, anchoring, and self-assured” tone - one “meant to offer us all a sense of needed tranquility,” most people probably didn’t take it too seriously and more than anything designers enjoyed having a reliable classic blue to lean on.

But ironically enough, 2020 was the most unpredictable and scariest years the world has faced in quite some time. Of course, to say that a color is the guiding force behind what will take place over the course of a year might be a stretch. And perhaps the color was chosen not because it’s what we expected to experience in 2020, but because it’s what we needed.

If that’s the case, hopefully 2021 will be looking brighter with two colors chosen - the first, Illuminating - a perky sunshine yellow hue that will hopefully bring some brightness into our lives, and the second, a complimentary “dependable” Ultimate Grey. These two hues were chosen as colors that can work together - certainly something the world could use more of as we look to the new year.

“No one color could get across the meaning of the moment,” Laurie Pressman, the vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, said on a call. “We all realized we cannot do this alone. We all have a deeper understanding of how we need each other and emotional support and hope.” That’s how Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said the decision to select “two independent colors really coming together.”

Ultimate Gray is a solid, granite-like gray. The kind of gray that makes one think of wisdom and learning. Illuminating is what we think of when it comes to sunshine and smiley faces. Wisdom and positivity working side by side.

Together, Ms. Eiseman said, “the color combination presses us forward.” Let’s hope the sentiment rings true in 2021. If anything, the color combination will certainly bring about new designs and styles we never would’ve expected to see in previous years.