Pantone Invented a New Shade for Its Color of the Year 2022

Each fall, the design world anxiously awaits the announcement of chromatic authority Pantone’s color of the year. It’s been a turbulent few years, so to mark a joyful (and hopeful) shift, the company’s choice for 2022 is…Pantone 17-3938, aka Very Peri. 

For the first time in the history of the brand, rather than pull from its expansive archive (like it has been doing since 1999), Pantone decided to invent a never-before-seen shade just for 2022. “Creating a new color reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place [in the world],” explains Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. Not quite purple, the company wanted the hue (blue to the eye, but with deep red undertones) to be versatile, blending with whatever color family it sits with. 

The vibrant periwinkle hue blends the calmness of blue with the energy of red for a shade that encourages individuality and expression. “As we emerge from an intense period of isolation, our notions and standards are changing, and our physical and digital lives have merged in new ways,” says Pressman. Pantone chooses it’s annual shade based on environmental, design, and cultural factors—like the merging of our physical and digital lives and the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. So Very Peri reflects where the world will be a year from now (fingers crossed). And even though each year’s color inevitably sparks debate—last year’s yellow and gray pairing oddly felt sad—we’re just excited that it’s one we actually look forward to seeing in homes. Oh, and that it’s not another shade of green.