In contrast to last year’s Living Coral, Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2020 has been announced as Classic Blue. Officially known as Pantone 19-4052, the colour is “Suggestive of the sky at dusk, the reassuring qualities of the thought-provoking Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue highlight our desire for a dependable and stable foundation from which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era.”
Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, explains “We are living in a time that requires trust and faith. It is this kind of constancy and confidence that is expressed by Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue, a solid and dependable blue hue we can always rely on. Imbued with a deep resonance, Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue provides an anchoring foundation. A boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue encourages us to look beyond the obvious to expand our thinking; challenging us to think more deeply, increase our perspective and open the flow of communication.”
Reflecting a diverse and more inclusive world, Pantone has transformed Classic Blue beyond the visual into a multi-sensory experience. Working with partners, Classic Blue is represented in sound, touch, smell and taste. Audio UX worked with Pantone to reflect the nature of Classic Blue in sound, creating a 145 samples for download here. Fragrance and flavour company Firmenich created a taste and a smell, “a fragrant contemplation of where sky and sea meet – a boundless blue where there is no end.” There’s even a matching tea blend, over at TeaLeaves, and The Inside has created a custom fabric, Dusk, for tactile representation of Classic Blue.
Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute expanded, “As we all head into a new era, we wanted to challenge ourselves to find inspiration from new sources that not only evolve our Color of the Year platform, but also help our global audiences achieve richer and more rewarding color experiences. This desire, combined with the emotional properties of Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue, motivated us to expand beyond the visual, to bring the 2020 Pantone Color of the Year to life through a multi-sensory experience.”
The full press release is here and discusses Classic Blue in the context of everything from tech innovation to food and drink, plus the new complementary multi-sensory approach.
If you are a designer, all the colour standards are on Pantone’s site, including some downloads for Adobe products. The codes for Classic Blue 19-4052 TCX are
- sRGB: 15 76 129
- CMYK: 100 76 25 0
- HTML: 0F4C81
Look for more blue in 2020! Once you start looking, you’ll be surprised how much you see.
Picture courtesy of Pantone.