It’s the start of a new year, some would say the start of a new decade (it’s up for debate, apparently) and Pantone have delivered once again with their Colour of the Year 2020.
Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue, to give it the full title, is a beautiful shade of calming blue, said to represent the sky at dusk. It’s a mid-blue, which Pantone say represents the world’s need for stability and calm as we start a new era.
Pantone reveal a new colour every year and are well-known for the research that goes into the process. They try to tap into the zeitgeist, the feeling of the time, having scanned everything from fashion to nature to get a handle on what colour will exemplify the coming year.
Explaining this year’s selection, executive director of the Pantone Colour Institute Leatrice Eiseman said: “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. Imbued with a deep resonance, Classic Blue provides an anchoring foundation. A boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, 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 a history of capturing the essence of a moment in time – see last year’s Colour of the Year choice, Living Coral, or the one for the new millennium, Cerulean Blue, which was the inaugural Colour of the Year, chosen for its universal calming effect. Shades of blue have been the colour choice in six of the 20 years that Pantone have released a colour of the year.
Colour associations – blue
The colour blue has long been associated with trustworthiness, wisdom, loyalty and dependability. Think about professional services firms – solicitors and accountants – and also about banks and other financial services companies; a great many use blue in their palette. Visa, American Express, KPMG, Barclays and St James’ Place are all notable examples.
Yet blue can also be cutting-edge, having technology connotations. It was adopted by IBM, Dell, Samsung, Facebook and Paypal, which straddles the tech-finance sectors.
It’s a universal colour that many people see on a daily basis. It’s the colour of the sea and of the sky, a universally calming and cooling colour that is both classic and familiar and, in this shade, contemporary.
Whatever kind of year you’re planning in 2020, the PMG team hopes it will be everything you wish for.
