NEW YORK — At a reception in Manhattan’s Artechouse, the Pantone Color Institute—the business unit within New Jersey-based color company Pantone that highlights the top seasonal colors for the design community—announced something different for its Color of the Year selection for 2022. Rather than select an existing color, the institute introduced a new blue shade, Very Peri, with a proprietary number of 17-3938.
The new shade is a periwinkle blue hue with violet red undertone, meant to combine the “faithfulness and constancy” of blue with the “energy and excitement” of red for a warmer variation of blue.
In announcing the new shade, Pantone leadership called it “a symbol of the global zeitgeist of the moment and the transition we are going through,” inspired by the new ways the physical and digital realms have merged. “Digital design helps us to stretch the limits of reality, opening the door to a dynamic virtual world where we can explore and create new color possibilities. With trends in gaming, the expanding popularity of the metaverse and rising artistic community in the digital space Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri illustrates the fusion of modern life and how color trends in the digital world are being manifested in the physical world and vice versa.”
To highlight this blend of digital and physical, blockchain company Tezos and Pantone will work together on color in the digital art world next year. Collaborating with Paris-based multidisciplinary artist Polygon1993, Pantone will leverage Tezos-based non-fungible token artworks inspired by the Very Peri shade to create a digital representation of the color.
“As we move into a world of unprecedented change, the selection of Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri brings a novel perspective and vision of the trusted and beloved blue color family,” Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, said in a statement. “Encompassing the qualities of the blues, yet at the same time possessing a violet-red undertone, Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri displays a spritely, joyous attitude and dynamic presence that encourages courageous creativity and imaginative expression.”
“The Pantone Color of the Year reflects what is taking place in our global culture, expressing what people are looking for that color can hope to answer,” said Laurie Pressman, VP of the Pantone Color Institute. “Creating a new color for the first time in the history of our Pantone Color of the Year educational color program reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place. As society continues to recognize color as a critical form of communication, and a way to express and affect ideas and emotions and engage and connect, the complexity of this new red violet infused blue hue highlights the expansive possibilities that lay before us.”
For interior design, Pantone expects Very Peri to enliven spaces through “unusual” color combinations. The shade can provide a pop of color on a painted wall, accent furniture or home decor, or acting as an accent in a pattern.
