Pantone reveals 2024 colour of the year is hue nestled between pink and orange
Peach Fuzz is the official Pantone Colour of the Year for 2024 and it’s been chosen to express a yearning for community and cosiness during uncertain times.
The tone – number 13-1023 on the company’s colour chart – is described as “radiant with warmth and modern elegance” by Pantone Color Institute executive director Leatrice Eiseman, adding that it’s a shade that “resonates with compassion, offers a tactile embrace, and effortlessly bridges the youthful with the timeless”.
At a time of turmoil in many aspects of life, the company said it wanted a colour that would focus on the importance of community and coming together with others as it needed to: express our desire to want to be close to those we love and the joy we get when allowing ourselves to tune into who we are and just savour a moment of quiet time alone”.
And for the February issue of Progressive Greetings magazine, the Peach Fuzz design trend will be featured so editor Jakki Brown – jakkib@max-publishing.co.uk – is looking for any products that include this comforting hue that’s softly nestled between pink and orange.
In the 25 years since the COTY programme was launched, the colour authority hopes to have “inspired you to look at colour in a different way”, according to the institute’s vice-president Laurie Pressman.
“We hope that colour and its connection to emotion and the expression of human feelings will take on a new significance, causing your eye to linger a little longer throughout the day on the tints and tones that surround you, as history unfolds from moment to moment.”
The institute originally created COTY as an educational programme in 1999 to engage the design community and colour enthusiasts around the world in a conversation around colour, to draw attention to the “relationship between culture and colour”, with the goal of helping companies and consumers better understand the power colour can have.
For companies, Pantone believes its COTY demonstrates colour is a major part of people’s decision to buy something or not and, for consumers, it makes them conscious of the impression they can make through colour, such as with the shades they choose to wear.
A team of global colour experts comb the world each year looking for new influences across the entertainment industry, travelling art collections, new artists, fashion, design, travel destinations, and socio-economic conditions, plus new technologies, materials, social media platforms and upcoming sporting events that capture worldwide attention.
Laurie added: “Since we introduced Pantone 15-4020 Cerulean Blue as the first COTY in 1999, we have seen this programme influence product development and purchasing decisions in nearly every industry and country around the world.
“Its impact is felt across fashion, colour cosmetics, home furnishings, automotive and industrial design, as well as product, packaging, multimedia design, and commercial interiors. We are grateful to have provided an avenue where designers and colour enthusiasts all over the world feel empowered to tell their own stories through the language of colour and showcase their creativity within their communities.”
