Guess What Pantone’s 2013 Color of the Year is???

Ever hear of Pantone? If you’re in the design industry, chances are you know about the Pantone company, but in case you haven’t heard about them, let me fill you in a little… 

Let me start by saying I’m absolutely fascinated with color. I’m not at all promoting any business with Pantone, I’m completely neutral and have no opinion of doing business with Pantone, but in my fascination with color and how the marketing/business world turns, Pantone plays a key role in it all, and that’s what I’m interested in and wanted to share just a little with you about it. 

Pantone is a company started around 60 or so years ago, and their business is color.

source: Pantone.com

From my understanding, to narrow it all down, Pantone basically has two main activities. 

First, they give the entire design world and consumers alike the opportunity tohave color references. They identify exact tints and shades of colors with the formulas. Say for instance that you’re a designer in Minneapolis, and you’re trying to communicate to your factory in North Carolina, or India, or anywhere around the world, the exact color you want on your newly designed fabric or plastic serveware, or anything you can imagine. You can refer to the Pantone color chart and both be on the ‘same page’ color-wise to insure it’s the right color for production. (that’s just one example of how the Pantone color chart is used) 

However, there’s another main activity that Pantone does that is equally fascinating, if not more so, especially by all of us consumers as well. Pantone sends all kinds of ‘specialists’ from many different fields out into the world, to see what colors are popular. Then after they gather up all this information, they re-group and between themselves, with their gathered knowledge, their expertise in their particular field, as well as their take on current or forecasted world events they decide or ‘forecast’ what is going to be the most popular color palette with descriptive words of those color choices for the next year!

source: Pantone.com

They have a palette of colors forecasted for women’s fashion,

source: Pantone.com

for men’s fashion,, which is very similar to the women’s fashion palette,

and for the home.

source: Pantone.com

(and if you’re really serious about having these colors swatches in hand, even as a consumer, you can purchase them from Pantone… but be forewarned, they’re not cheap… like $500 or more not cheap… but if you’re in the design industry it’d for sure be a necessary investment.) 

And not only that, but they also announce a single color for the color of the year! Which brings me to my title of this post… guess what the color of the year for 2013 is?  (last year was Tangerine Tango, if that helps at all?)  

Well, if you haven’t already figured out what it is, then with no further ado let me introduce you to this year’s color:

Ta-Da…

source: Pantone.com

So what do people do with this information?  

Well, we as consumers, do just that, we consume. (Ha! That’s pretty easy) As we go shopping, we see the new colors featured in the new season’s lines and are excited to buy some of it and bring it into our homes our wear it to enjoy the freshness. Simple. It doesn’t take much of a commitment to do this, by just simply accessorizing with emerald green or some of the colors in the new color palette, breathes an updated look to our outfits or home interiors.

I’m all of a sudden looking at my topiaries on the dining table at ‘Our House’ with a whole new appreciation for the emerald green in them. 

And of course, designers or those in every facet of industry are affected by these new color palettes. From design, to production to marketing, to look fresh and look up to date with whatever it is they’re selling is a must. 

So watch for it… watch the stores and marketing to start featuring Emerald Green… How will you introduce the new color of the year into your closet or home interior?
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