Living Coral is Pantone’s 2019 Color of the Year, and we cannot be more excited.
The color experts have decided on the color that will dominate and influence the art and design scene for 2019. Living Coral is far from what everyone expected, but it offers a close look to what the world needs.
An orange hue doesn’t exactly scream fashion nor luxurious taste, but its significance is one that the world currently needs, going so well with the changing times and the evolving environmental landscape.
Brief History of Pantone’s Color of the Year
For the past twenty years, Pantone has released a color of the year, influenced by numerous factors. It’s a result of working for a year with designers, brands, artists, collaborators, and experts from various fields.
Over the past two decades, it has become a reflection of the trends in pop culture, fashion, and design, serving as a color-centric time capsule of a specific point in time, encapsulating the beat of various industries through a specific shade.
To say that a lot of industries refer to the year’s choice of color is an understatement. The Color of Year doesn’t dictate that the color should be the only thing trendy or significant, but in a way, it influences how brands and creators design their products and collaterals.
Pantone Color Institute’s Vice President Laurie Pressman said it best—the Pantone Color of the Year reflects what the world currently needs.
Ultra Violet was the chosen color for 2018. It’s a reflection of the night sky, and it signifies the future, a futuristic color that calls for ingenuity and visionary thinking. It’s a provocative and chaotic color, but it awakens the senses and inspires people to explore what lies ahead.
This year, the institute chose a color that emphasizes on the need to focus on the present and to reconnect with what’s the tangible.
The Timely Significance of Living Coral
Officially called PANTONE 16-1546, Living Coral has a golden undertone, zest, and a lot of heart. Described as a color that’s “animating and life-affirming”, it’s mesmerizing to the eyes but not too empowering.
This year, Pantone cited the use of coral by big brands, such as Apple and Airbnb, in their marketing efforts as a sign of the color’s influence and potential. It’s not just these two brands, too, because the color experts spent the year analyzing trends and directions of brands from multiple industries, including technology, travel, and even sports.
This is a color that’s ever-present in our natural surroundings and digital environment. It’s a naturally occurring color used in mobile apps and desktop applications, being a color of choice for many designers and innovators.
Despite Ultra Violet being 2018’s color of the year, another pink-tinted hue dominated the year’s design landscape. Millennial Pink was everywhere—from shoes to smartphone cases to bags to fashionwear. This led and influenced the color selection for 2019.
Living Coral inspires joyful pursuits that fuels creativity outside the small screens of our mobile devices and laptops. In the always changing landscape where virtual connection is overtaking real-life interaction, a color that offers optimism and warmth is more than welcome. Living Coral embodies a lot of things, particularly human’s relationship with technology that slowly creeped in to our lives, unfortunately becoming a fixed part of our daily realities.
A 2018 study shows that 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% of them admit to be constantly online. They’re on multiple media channels, particularly Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram, and they have mixed views on the effects of social media in their lives.
The color of the year aims to bridge the gap between real life and digital reality, something that’s not only experienced by teens but also adults and kids. It’s a vibrant color that’s humanizing and heartwarming, traits that may be missing from the relationships often built online.
The need to reconnect to our surroundings cannot be more emphasized. Living Color is reminiscent of nature, and nothing is more real than nature itself.
It’s also the color of “carefree happiness”, according to the color experts. And with today’s landscape filled with cynicism and negativity, it’s something that the general public is possibly craving. The team only hopes that this color is one that enhances how we experience life.
But most importantly, it’s a color that aims to address critical environmental issues.
A proactive approach in protecting and preserving the biodiversity is a necessity with the current state of the environment, especially with the climate change affecting and changing everything we know about nature.
Living Coral is reminiscent of the corals that rule the underwater ecosystem. Vibrant even in the dark, murky waters, resistant despite the strong pressure of water currents.
The Aesthetics of Living Coral
Pantone’s color of the year perfectly captures the spring season, but it can also remind you of tropical vacations and hot summer days.
It’s not a particularly new color, but it has been overshadowed by other stronger and striking shades. It’s a combination of other trendy hues in recent years—salmon, orange, pink, and gold, mixed together to achieve that warm tone.
Alone, Living Coral is striking enough to be the primary color of any design. It doesn’t need a complimentary color to attract the eyes. The solid shade will look good particularly in furniture and stand-alone fashion pieces.
With Neutral Colors
It’s also a good accent to neutral colors such as black, white, and gray. It adds a dash of underrated playfulness without losing the simplicity or overshadowing the use of the neutral shades. Living Coral stands out on a black background, complements the clean feel of predominantly white design, and enhances the sophistication of gray hues.
With Bright Hues
Together with other vibrant colors, Living Coral will not lose out. It looks particularly good with any shade of blue, particularly teal, aquamarine, and turquoise. A vibrant shade of orange will always look good with a vibrant shade of blue. Green is another color that goes well with Living Coral, giving off a feel of nature, especially the beach.
Pantone’s Color of the Year may have been decided based on the recent trends in fashion, art, and design, but Living Coral is also a color that reflects what the society collectively needs.
With the way the world currently works, a color that aims to warm the heart and offer a rare spark of joy is an apt choice.
