Pantone reveals its 2023 Colour of The Year

At Art Basel Miami Beach Pantone’s Colour of the Year, Viva Magenta, has been revealed by Eley Cheng, Pantone vice president and general manager, and Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Colour Institute – both wearing items of clothing that hinted at the vibrant shade to be announced.

For 24 years Pantone’s forecasters have been choosing a Colour of the Year following a process where its experts “comb the world looking for new colour influences”, looking at “films in production, travelling art collections and new artists, fashion, all areas of design, popular travel destinations as well as new lifestyles, playstyles and socio-economic conditions”, according to Pantone.

“We try to have [the colour] represent the attitude, lifestyle, the dreams present across the world in a given moment in time,” Cheng says.

“The colour of the year this year is a call to courage, it is an invitation for us to experiment and to share. This colour merges the warmth of the natural world with the endless rich possibilities of the digital space. It deepens our mode of self-expression. It gives us the assurance and motivation to stay open.”

Pressman adds that the colour choice “serves as an expression of a mood and attitude on the part of consumers. A colour that reflects what we’re experiencing, a colour we see crossing all areas of design; a colour that will resonate around the world, a colour that reflects what people are looking for what they feel they need, that colour can hope to answer.”

This year’s shade, PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta, is a response to the years of the pandemic, which Pressman describes as characterised by “uncertainty”.

“As virtual worlds become a more prominent part of our daily lives, we look to draw inspiration from nature and what is real,” says Pantone Colour Institute executive director Leatrice Eiseman.

“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, it galvanizes our spirit, helping us to build our inner strength”.

The coming together of man and machine is embraced with the new Colour of the Year visuals, where Pantone worked with its creative partner Huge on a design experiment using AI generative tool Midjourney, “that explores the relationship – the tensions – between new technology and human creativity”. The key visual, Pantone explains, “serves as an invitation into an optimistic and endless new ecosystem to be explored, called “the Magentaverse”.

An early opportunity to explore the Magentaverse is a technology-driven immersive experience at Art Basel by Artechouse, opening 3 December, while a number of collaborations show the shade incorporated into new product designs. These include a special edition of the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion phone, as well as a broader global partnership with parent company Lenovo; a version of Hydrow’s Wave Rower exercise machine; and new wallpaper and fabric designs by independent designers for Spoonflower.

Banner image credit: Huge