How This Year’s Pantone Colors of the Year Will Influence Marketing Trends

• Every year since 2000, Pantone has designated a Color of the Year, which is announced every December.

• Once the Color of the Year is announced, hundreds of brands begin designing new products using that color.

• Contact our firm at (866) GEM-CORP to speak with our graphic design team!

Our in-house graphic designers often incorporate the most recent Color of the Year into their campaigns for clients.

For only the second time since this campaign began in 2000, Pantone has designated two Colors of the Year for 2021.  Those colors are Illuminating, which is a sunshiny yellow, and Ultimate Gray.  There’s no doubt that 2020 has been a trying year for all of us, and that was the reason for this year’s color combination.  Pantone has named the duo as “a marriage of color conveying a message of strength and hopefulness that is both enduring and uplifting.” 

Our digital marketing experts know that Illuminating and Ultimate Gray will be widely popular color schemes in graphic design and social media for 2021.  We’ve already seen the way the 2020 Color of the Year, Classic Blue, has impacted the marketing and business world, from Adobe Stock photos and templates with a Classic Blue theme to various fashion pieces with Classic Blue as the central color.  Our graphic designers expect increased demand for Illuminating and Ultimate Gray as a color scheme for clients’ websites and custom images.  Understandably, a brand will want all of their marketing channels to convey a message of positivity and hopefulness for what lies ahead.  The bright, positive tone of the Illuminating color, combined with the reliability and consistency of Ultimate Gray, sends an excellent message to customers that a business is set up for success regardless of circumstances.

Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of Pantone, has conducted research for decades where she asked participants to associate certain words with the color yellow.  The most popular words that people used were “sunshine,” “warmth,” “cheer,” “happiness” and sometimes “playfulness.”  Her research played an important role in the selection of Pantone’s Illuminating as one of the Colors of the Year for 2021.

Our website, graphic design and social media professionals use the latest trends to come up with solutions for your brand and get you leads.  We look forward to working with you!