Pantone’s New Color of the Year Is…
Every year the hue gods at Pantone headquarters hand-pick their color of the year, and 2015’s is … Marsala.
*Crickets*
Marsala is brown-ish, which leans somewhere toward the red spectrum of the primary color wheel. Some have described it as “wine-influenced,’’others as “not quite as bright as Adobe clay but not as deep as brick.’’ Another mused that it was a shade with descriptions closely associated with “the womb.’’
Pantone’s Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman put it in more colorful terms, telling the AP it was “hardy, robust, satisfying, fulfilling,’’ with a “certain glamour.’’
Being selected as color of the year must be a lot like being crowned Miss America. The minute you’ve won, everyone immediately turns on you and decides to pick you apart.
“But I’ve been chosen for my good looks, among my other valued salable assets!’’
“Yes, but we hate you now. And here’s everywhere you went wrong.’’
Marsala doesn’t stand a chance, other than the fact that it follows a bizarrely abrasive Radiant Orchid, the lilac-pink mashup that couldn’t quite win with consumers or professionals in 2014. While the color is chosen via a poll of designers, retailers, manufacturers, and other shade savants, Pantone notes it’s not necessarily anticipated to be the end-all, be-all trend going forward—but it will probably come close.
This is what Marsala has to live up to:
“A color that will resonate around the world, the PANTONE Color of the Year is a reflection of what people are looking for, what they feel they need that color can help to answer. Not necessarily the hot fashion color of the moment, but a color crossing all areas of design which is an expression of a mood, an attitude, on the part of the consumers.’’
No pressure, Marsala. We wish you luck.
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