Pantone Colour of the Year 2021

posted by Robyn Pitts January 7, 2021

For over 20 years, Pantone’s Colour of the Year has influenced a wide range of industries, from fashion, to interior design, as well as product packaging and graphic design. Every year, Pantone’s colour experts comb the world looking for new colour influences. For 2021, Pantone Color Institute have selected two complimentary colours, representing “a marriage of colour conveying a message of strength and hopefulness that is both enduring and uplifting”.

PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating are two independent colours that highlight how different elements come together to support one another. “Practical and rock solid but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a colour combination that gives us resilience and hope” says Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Colour Institute.

Illuminating is a cheerful, warming, spirited yellow “sparkling with vivacity“. Reminding us of the colours of “pebbles on the beach”, and “natural elements whose weathered appearance highlights an ability to stand the test of time”, Ultimate Gray embodies “encouraging feelings of resilience”.

The bringing together of Ultimate Gray and Illuminating represents strength and positivity, promising something sunny and friendly that perfectly sums up our needs in 2021. The combination shows us that things will get brighter, as we look for ways to overcome our feelings of uncertainty that have developed over the past year. This marriage of colour encourages us toward new ways of thinking and concepts.