As Pantone revs up to announce its ‘colour of the year’ replacing last year’s ‘ Emerald 17-5641’ in a ridiculous bid to present themselves as the historic and leading light in designer colour choice, I feel an overriding sense of disappointment in them and how they represent an industry that’s built on deep thought, consideration and care.
Let me explain myself if I may. Colour (spelt ‘colour’ in England and not ‘color’) when presented as a worldwide trend is a farcical concept. There will never be a single colour that would truly represent the world for a fixed period of time as colours have different meanings and properties in different cultures.
Marketing professionals and advertisers are very aware of the nature of an international campaign being presented on national platforms and as such use localised agencies worldwide to reflect the same campaigns for international tastes using local intelligence. That’s the way it is done and this is the most effective and successful way of creating an international campaign. Armed with this simple insight it is not a giant leap to realise that colour trends are not global and so therefore render the Pantone ‘colour of the year’ as a pointless and transparent exercise.
I would expect a greater level of intelligence from an ‘industry standard’ such as Pantone, but feel a little let down at the lack of understanding of their own industry – reflecting badly on designers, visionaries and creatives such as ourselves. Making the industry fickle and whimsical (perhaps that’s another discussion right there!).
Rant over.