2019 Pantone Color of the Year: Living Coral

Last week, Pantone introduced Living Color as the 2019 Pantone Color of the Year. According to the company’s  news release, “Vibrant, yet mellow PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral embraces us with warmth and nourishment to provide comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment.”

The bright, bold warm choice is a return to nature, like the 2017 Color of the Year. “PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral emits the desired, familiar, and energizing aspects of color found in nature,” the company said in the news statement. “In its glorious, yet unfortunately more elusive, display beneath the sea, this vivifying and effervescent color mesmerizes the eye and mind.” Photo by Pantone

Pantone chose the color for its “engaging nature” that reflects people’s need for fun, positivity and authentic experiences. In an ever-increasing digital and social media landscape, Living Coral represents “our innate need for optimism and joyful pursuits.”

“Color is an equalizing lens through which we experience our natural and digital realities and this is particularly true for Living Coral,” Pantone Color Institute Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman said in the news release. “With consumers craving human interaction and social connection, the humanizing and heartening qualities displayed by the convivial PANTONE Living Choral hit a responsive chord.”

 In 1963, Pantone created the Pantone Matching System which standardized color reproduction for designers and printers. The color language is used in industries worldwide—apparel, beauty, architectural and industrial design, textiles, interiors.

The Pantone Color Institute, a color consulting and trend forecasting service within Pantone, announces the annual hue in early December. They collaborate with brands before the announcement to feature products in the designated color. For 2018, the Pantone Color Institute chose Ultra Violet as the Color of the Year, noting its complex and contemplative nature and connection to spirituality, pop culture and the cosmos.

In the news release, Eiseman said, “We are living in a time that requires inventiveness and imagination. It is this kind of creative inspiration that is indigenous to PANTONE 18-3838 Ultra Violet, a blue-based purple that takes our awareness and potential to a higher level. From exploring new technologies and the greater galaxy, to artistic expression and spiritual reflection, intuitive Ultra Violet lights the way to what is yet to come.”

The Pantone Color Institute has chosen a color of the year since 2000. The choice, according to their website, is a “color snapshot of what we see taking place in our global culture that serves as an expression of a mood and an attitude.”

Pantone Color Institute Vice President Laurie Pressman expanded on the significance of the color selection in the Ultra Violet news release. “Pantone Color of the Year has come to mean so much more than ‘what’s trending’ in the world of design; it’s truly a reflection of what’s needed in our world today. As individuals around the world become more fascinated with color and realize its ability to convey deep messages and meanings, designers and brands should feel empowered to use color to inspire and influence. The Color of the Year is one moment in time that provides strategic direction for the world of trend and design, reflecting the Pantone Color Institute’s year-round work doing the same for designers and brands.”

With the color choice each year, Pantone offers palettes that pair the color with other hues. The color combinations are meant as inspiration in beauty, fashion and product lines as well as for graphic design.