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LIVING CORAL, A HYMN TO OPTIMISM

When color becomes a life's philosophy

05 Jan 2019

For 20 years, Pantone's Colour of the Year influenced many sectors, including home furnishings, industrial design, products such as packaging, graphics and fashion which uses the colour trend to create different palettes in the most immediate and creative way.But how is the colour of the year decided? The selection process is anything but trivial. A considered trend analysis is needed and the colour search takes about nine months. Every year, 20 colour experts from the Pantone Colour Institute search the world for new chromatic influences. They study fashion, all design areas, the entertainment industry, films under production, travelling art collections and new artists, popular travel destinations, new lifestyles and socio-economic conditions that are constantly changing. Inputs can come from recent technologies, materials, textures and effects that impact colour, including relevant social media platforms and upcoming sporting events that capture global attention

The colour for 2019 is always defined as a number, 16-1546 but like many Pantone colours it also has a name: Living Coral. In announcing the choice, Pantone's vice president, Laurie Pressman, explained that this colour “has a sociable and lively essence and encourages to do things with a light spirit. It symbolises our innate need for optimism and the search for joy, it represents our desire for playfulness." In her speech, Pressman made us reflect on how we are used to strong colours in the age of social media: "We are seeing much more saturated colours. It's an effect of the social media influence, because people want elements to stand out and this colour is definitely visible on social media. Living Coral is a vivifying colour, but not showy.” Pressman said:” This colour has imposed itself on us at such a delicate time for the environment, climate change is whitening coral reefs and erasing their rainbow colours.”.

This colour, normally for summer, was specially chosen because it hides and reveals two important issues. First, with its cheerfulness, it evokes optimism, warmth and affection that invites you to have authentic experiences in response to the dehumanisation of this digital era. Placed at the heart of our vivid natural chromatic ecosystem, the choice of this colour emphasises the priority that nature and the environment should have in global policies and economies. In its impressive, most elusive, underwater expression, this vivifying and effervescent hue enchants the eye and mind. The colour of the year is an "aesthetic" snapshot of what we see happening in our global culture and embodies its deepest thoughts. One of the best qualities of Living Coral is that it is extremely versatile and easily matched to a wide range of distinct colours, from light to dark. This will be the new year trend on its own or combined with others depending on the individual inspiration and imagination. It will be part of our PE19 collection, which celebrates it by inserting it into prints taken from our archive, combining it with stronger colours to make it more reddish and orange. It often appears as a detail in prints which are rich in patterns and colours. This makes it a deliberate symbolic link which is placed on our traditional sumptuous coloured printed accessories.

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LIVING CORAL, A HYMN TO OPTIMISM

When color becomes a life's philosophy