The Pantone Color Institute provides customized color standards, brand identity and product color consulting for a variety of design industries. It also forecasts the color the year. According to Laurie Pressman, Vice President of The Pantone Color Institute, the Pantone Color of the Year program was originally created in 1999 to engage the design community and color enthusiasts around the world in a conversation around color. The main goal is to draw attention to the relationship between culture and color and to highlight how our global culture is expressed and reflected through the language of color.
The Pantone Color Institute’s color of 2023 is Viva Magenta 18-1750. According to Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of The Pantone Color Institute, “In this age of technology, we look to draw inspiration from nature and what is real. PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta descends from the red family, and is inspired by the red of cochineal, one of the most precious dyes belonging to the natural dye family as well as one of the strongest and brightest the world has known. Rooted in the primordial, PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta reconnects us to original matter. Invoking the forces of nature, PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta galvanizes our spirit, helping us to build our inner strength.”
The color selected each year by The Pantone Color Institute is bigger than one region or one sector of design. It is a color that is seen across all areas of design; a color that will resonate around the world and reflect what people are looking for. The Pantone Color of the Year is reflective of a lifestyle trend. It’s not going to represent a singular trend that you can only find in the US or only find in Asia. It’s global. It is critical that The Pantone Color Institute makes sure that the color really reflects what’s taking place in the global culture at that moment in time.
Color is a very important powerful communication tool. It is the first thing we see and the first thing we connect to. It is a visual language we all understand, one whose message crosses genders, generations, and geographies. Learning more about the unique meanings of particular colors helps us to be a more expressive, closely connected society. As a globally recognized visual language, color can say what words cannot.