Aiming for “a message of happiness supported by fortitude,” color expert Pantone has announced not one but two “colors of the year” for 2021.
The picks for the coming year are Ultimate Gray and a “cheerful yellow” called Illuminating.
The announcement was made last week by the Pantone Color Institute, the consulting wing of the New Jersey-based printing and design specialist.
It was the second time in the selection’s 22-year history that two colors have been chosen. In 2016, soft hues of rose and blue were twinned.
Of the 2021 selection, Pantone’s press release said: “The combination … is aspirational and gives us hope. We need to feel that everything is going to get brighter.”
The gray — “the color of pebbles on the beach” — encourages “feelings of composure, steadiness and resilience,” it went on.
This year’s color was a sedate dark blue, described as “restful, non-aggressive and easily relatable.”
