Pantone's Color of the Year 'Very Peri' reflects an increasingly digital world

Shade of periwinkle blue selected to represent 2022 is first brand new color created by the organization

Published On
Dec 09, 2021

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Pantone has unveiled its Color of the Year 2022, "Very Peri," a shade of periwinkle blue that appears to be inspired partly by digital design and the virtual world. 

Pantone 17-3938, which infuses blue with red-violet hues, also represents the first time the Pantone Institute has created a brand new shade created specifically for the coming year, rather than selecting one from its existing palette.

In its press announcement revealing the color, Pantone makes references to the very zeitgeisty areas of "the metaverse," gaming and digital design.

"As we emerge from an intense period of isolation, our notions and standards are changing, and our physical and digital lives have merged in new ways," states the announcement. "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."

“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,” added Laurie Pressman, vice president 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 recognise 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.”

The Pantone Color of the Year program has been running since 2000 when it started as a marketing initiative. Last year's colors were "Ultimate Grey" and "Illuminating Yellow," representing resilience and optimism in the face of the pandemic.