2021: Dark turns to light.
Most astrologers have made a belly landing with their predictions for 2020. But even the US company Pantone got it wrong when it came to choosing the “Colour of the Year 2020”. For 2021, Pantone’s colour specialists were more cautious and made a clever choice.
Every December, when we are actually more interested in Panetone than Pantone, the US company of the same name chooses the colour of the year. You can’t blame them for getting it wrong last time. After all, we all imagined 2020 in the most beautiful colours. “Classic Blue” was the colour of 2020 and Pantone said in 2019 that this classic shade of blue, which is perceived to evoke calm, confidence and aplomb, would be a good fit for 2020. Leatrice Eisenman, executive director of the Pantone Colour Institute: “Classic Blue, representing the endless expanse of the evening sky, calls us to expand our horizons, think more clearly, embrace new perspectives, and communicate freely and without bias.” Classic Blue – a welcome sense of peace, harmony and security. How nice it would have been if this year had felt like Classic Blue. For 2021, Pantone is more cautious. Instead of a single colour, they have chosen a combination of colours: “We introduce Pantone 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and Pantone 13-0647 Illuminating Yellow: Two contrasting shades that represent a balance between “strength” and “optimism”.” And this time Leatrice Eisenman says: “Practical and rock solid, yet warming and optimistic, this is a colour combination that gives us resilience and hope. We need to feel encouraged and uplifted; it is essential to the human spirit.”
So yellow and grey. And what does the colour psychology community have to say about these two colours? In the famous Lüscher colour test of 1947, yellow stands for hope and a sense of community. A slightly more flowery formulation can be found on the countless colour psychology websites: yellow is “the brightest colour in the spectrum”, is called the colour of the sun and stands for warmth, activity and creativity. Yellow makes everything friendlier and cheerful. Yellow is the best colour to inspire zest for life and optimism. Yellow is optimistic, cheerful, playful and happy. It is a feat that Pantone could not decide on this colour alone in these times.
And what does grey represent? Again from the Lüscher test: Grey represents distance. And colour psychologists think: “Grey symbolises the limit, the impenetrable, and stands for neutrality and caution.” “Everyone has to deal with grey, because unfortunately our hair has the urge to turn grey sooner or later.” “People also like to talk about grey eminences pulling the strings in the background. Of grey everyday life”. “As a calm and unemotional colour, grey is strong and enduring, conveying a sense of coolness and self-control, relieving us from a troubled world.” “Those who love the colour grey are trying to protect themselves from the world around them. It shows that these people prefer a safe and balanced existence. They control their emotions in order to avoid emotional pain”. In this sense, grey was probably the colour of 2020.
Silver lining on the horizon
Of course, colour psychology is far from an exact science. Our design director, Marco Simonetti, pointed out to me that in ancient times plague houses were painted yellow. And a light, silvery grey can also convey hope and be a sign of new beginnings – the famous “silver lining on the horizon”.
Combined, the two colours will certainly go well together in the coming year. At the beginning it will probably be dominated by grey. And – after the Covid inoculation – hopefully it will be more yellow. Well done, Pantone!
We can only hope that a little “grey” at the beginning of the year will soon be followed by a lot of “yellow”, that after the grey, the yellow will shine even brighter. Or to paraphrase Charles Dickens: “There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in contrast.”