COLOUR Of the Year 2016 PANTONE ®
PANTONE ® is widely acknowledged as the international language of colour by designers, manufacturers and retailers alike. So who better to hear from than America’s leading colour expert, and Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute ® , Leatrice Eiseman. Read on for her unique insights on trends, using colour in your home and how colour can transform an already striking art collection.
TALK TO US ABOUT PANTONE’S ‘COLOR OF THE YEAR’… I often refer to it as homework. We spend a lot of time coming to this decision. I think sometimes people aren’t aware how meticulous you have to be with your research where colour is involved. We take a symbolic view of what colour means, in terms of inspiration and creativity, talking to customers of Pantone as well as everyday consumers, to get a feel for the current zeitgeist. Two colours gave a bigger story this year than any standalone shade. It helped to answer the need we heard so many people express for quiet, calm introspection. ‘Serenity Blue’ definitely has that feel – people often relate blues to the beautiful
blue sky we get on peaceful summer days – which is something everyone can identify with, no matter their circumstances, or whereabouts in the world they live. It’s universal. Blue also carries a message of hope – because even if it’s cloudy and overcast, we know that beautiful blue is right behind the grey, and we can be hopeful that the clouds will disperse before too long. In word association studies that we have conducted at Pantone for a number of years, it’s shown to be a mark of constancy, reassurance and tranquillity. So that’s the cool end of the spectrum, but we realised that we needed a warmer colour to balance it out, and we chose ‘Rose Quartz’. This shade of pink has a connotation of strength, as shown in its name, so it
balances the tone really well. When we release the ‘Color Of The Year’ we never know how it is going to resonate with the public, so it’s always interesting to us when we receive emails and messages from people, or we see our colours reproduced. We always wait with baited breath for the general reaction, but I have to say that the feedback to 2016’s choice has been enormously positive. Each year, there seems to be more anticipation, more excitement and, even if people may say that they don’t much care for the colour itself, they respect the reasoning and research that’s gone into its selection.
We will very often look at the art world to forecast colour trends
16 FINE ART COLLECTOR AUTUMN 2016
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