Ultimate Gray & Illuminating
So in 2021, get ready for Ultimate Gray and Illuminating. Or, in normal-speak: the light at the end of the tunnel. This is only the second time in the 22 years that Pantone has been choosing a colour of the year that two colours have been selected and the first time that a gray has earned the honour. The first time was in 2015 when Rose Quartz and Serenity were chosen (which is to say, pink and blue for 2016). That year, the two shades were meant to blend into each other, reflecting the recognition of gender fluidity and social progress. But this year, the two shades are meant to stand on their own, as complementary tones, supporting each other.
It is also the first time that a gray has earned the honour and only the second time for a yellow. As it happens, both shades were added to the Pantone colour wheel earlier this year, along with Period Red. The direction things were going was fairly certain by this almost gone year's midsummer. The prognosticators began by acknowledging the shades of gray in which we have all been immersed. Indeed, of all the grays in the palette, Ultimate Gray is a determinedly neutral kind of gray. It is not the dark gray of gathering storm clouds or the dour gray of institutional sameness or the dim gray of skulking in the shadows or the soft, luxurious dove gray of Dior, but a more solid, granite-like gray. The kind of gray of wisdom (gray beards!) and intelligence (gray matter!) and construction.
“It’s a dependable gray,”
“It’s about our minds resetting to what’s really important,”
Even in the gray sameness of our current days, the future does look a whole lot brighter. Illuminated, even.
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