The Pantone Colour of the Year is a single shade chosen annually by Pantone, the company behind the numbered colour system used by designers and printers, to capture the mood of the year ahead. Fashion, beauty, homeware and packaging then hurry to agree.
The tradition began with Cerulean for 2000, presented as a calm blue for the new millennium and linked, among other things, to concerns about water and the environment. The same shade later found film fame through a celebrated speech about a blue jumper in The Devil Wears Prada. Pantone could not settle on just one for 2016, naming Rose Quartz and Serenity together, and did the same again for 2021 with Illuminating and Ultimate Gray. The choice is said to draw on trend forecasting, travel, technology, entertainment and even major sporting events, which explains why a paint chip is unveiled with the ceremony usually reserved for a royal baby.