Marie Redding, Senior Editor12.10.21
It’s official—the Pantone 2022 Color of the Year is Very Peri (Pantone #17-3938), which is a complex color that combines blue hues with a violet-red undertone.
Very Peri isn’t violet—it’s a fun, futuristic “dynamic periwinkle blue with a vivifying violet-red undertone,” Pantone posted on Instagram, and it’s meant to encourage creativity and “imaginative expression.”
Pantone stated that it “blends the faithfulness and constancy of blue with the energy and excitement of red.”
It’s a new Pantone color with a dynamic presence—and it’s “the happiest and warmest of all the blue hues,” the company says.
Leatrice Eiseman, executive director, Pantone Color Institute, explains:
“We are living in transformative times. Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri is a symbol of the global zeitgeist of the moment and the transition we are going through. 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.”Eiseman continues to explain that Very Peri represents “the fusion of modern life and how color trends in the digital world are being manifested in the physical world and vice versa.”
Very Peri is Brand New, for a 'Newly Transformed' World
Rather than choose one of its existing colors as Color of the Year, which Pantone has done for the past 23 years, Very Peri is brand new.“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,” explains Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute.
Pressman continues, “As society continues to recognize 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.”
Creating Digital Art & An Immersive Digital Display
Very Peri “illustrates the creativity and inventiveness that is frequently displayed in the digital design and art world,” Pantone posted on Instagram—so it's fitting that Pantone accounced its Color of the Year in an innovative high-tech way.Very Peri was unveiled to the press on Wednesday, December 8th, at a digital exhibit created by Artechouse. See photos from it above, via @pantone on Instagram.
It was "a visually and audibly compelling immersive digital experience” held in Artechouse's New York City space— a 100-year-old boiler room beneath the Chelsea Market.
The Paris-based artist known as Polygon1993 collaborated with Pantone and Artechouse to create a digital representation of the color for the event—see it embedded below. Pantone also worked with Tezos, an energy efficient blockchain.
Artechouse, which currently has exhibitions in NYC, Miami, and Washington DC, will open an exhibition of the Pantone color to the public next year.
The company describes its name as Art + Tech + House, and aims to inspire a new generation of ‘tech artists’ by creating, producing, and presenting art across various platforms.
More About Very Peri
Very Peri “displays a “carefree confidence and a daring curiosity…opening us up to a new vision as we rewrite our lives,” Pantone states.It is also meant to rekindle gratitude—and places the future ahead in a new light.
Read more about it in our Online Exclusive—
Pantone’s Color of the Year 2022, Very Peri & Its Beauty Applications