What’s Your Favorite Pantone Color of the Year?
What’s Your Favorite Pantone Color of the Year?
Have you ever wondered where all those colors of the year come from? Who decides, and how do they come up with them? The concept was originated by Pantone, the undisputed king of color and creators of the Pantone Matching System.
When you work in industries like advertising or printing, you buy big, expensive books of swatches with all the available Pantone colors. Designers use the books to choose colors for things like logos, and printers use them to make sure the finished product (like a sign or poster) is a perfect match. Your company’s official Pantone color is a law you don’t break: think of Home Depot orange (Pantone 165) or Starbucks green (Pantone 3425).
The color of the year is big business. Hundreds of products are made featuring the color, from sneakers to kitchen knives, and many paint companies now announce their own annual pick.
You can see how colors are meant to capture the national mood, like 2002’s True Red in response to the patriotism stirred by 9/11 or 2021’s juxtaposition of gray against bright yellow to capture our feelings about the pandemic.
To learn more, The Hustle did a deep dive into who chooses the color of the year, how they choose it, and the impact it has. Here’s each winning Pantone Color of the Year since 2000, along with the latest color for 2023. Which one is your favorite?
2000
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Cerulean Blue
2001
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Fuchsia Rose
2002
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True Red
2003
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Aqua Sky
2004
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Tigerlily
2005
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Blue Turquoise
2006
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Sand Dollar
2007
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Chili Pepper
2008
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Blue Iris
2009
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Mimosa
2010
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Turquoise
2011
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Honeysuckle
2012
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Tangerine Tango
2013
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Emerald
2014
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Radiant Orchid
2015
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Marsala
2016
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Serenity and Rose Quartz
2017
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Greenery
2018
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Ultra Violet
2019
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Living Coral
2020
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Classic Blue
2021
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Illuminating and Ultimate Gray
2022
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Very Peri
2023
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Viva Magenta
Jen Barnett is the co-founder of Expatsi, a company that's helped thousands of Americans on their moving abroad journeys. She created the Expatsi Test, an assessment that recommends countries for aspiring emigrants based on lifestyle data. Jen has an MBA from Emory University with concentrations in marketing and innovation. Prior to Expatsi, she created Freshfully and Bottle & Bone—two businesses in the local food space—and spoke at TEDx on being brave. She lives in Mérida, Yucatán, along with her husband and co-founder Brett, pitbull mix Squiggy, and two rotten cats. How can she help you move abroad?
