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Welcome to the magentaverse

Published on 21 Comments on Welcome to the magentaverse

In case you're interested in such things, Very Peri has only a few weeks left as Pantone's color of the year. It is being replaced in 2023 by Viva Magenta:

This is no ordinary red, either!

This year’s Color of The Year is powerful and empowering. It is a new animated red that revels in pure joy, encouraging experimentation and self-expression without restraint, an electrifying, and a boundaryless shade that is manifesting as a stand-out statement. PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta welcomes anyone and everyone with the same verve for life and rebellious spirit. It is a color that is audacious, full of wit and inclusive of all.

Inclusive of all! Here's part of the official statement from Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute:

In this age of technology, we look to draw inspiration from nature and what is real. PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta descends from the red family, and is inspired by the red of cochineal, one of the most precious dyes belonging to the natural dye family as well as one of the strongest and brightest the world has known.

Rooted in the primordial, PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta reconnects us to original matter. Invoking the forces of nature, PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta galvanizes our spirit, helping us to build our inner strength.

Whew. That's a lot to ask of one color, and I hope Viva Magenta is up to it.

21 thoughts on “Welcome to the magentaverse”

  1. different_name

    I guess this is the beginning of my drift into irrelevance.

    I will be entering 2023 without Pantone access, and so must do without the lush, vivid visual experiences only 18-1750 can provide.

    I haven't printed with Pantone spots in over a decade, and haven't done any big print runs since before the Plague Years. So renting a lookup table for $.50/day makes no sense.

    I am confused by what Danaher is thinking, but I'm sure they have thought this over.

    3. Caramba

      The real irrelevant are those that have to use such hyperbolic vocabulary to attract attention.
      When reading the above description, I got the same headache that I have when trying to read an article on why Defi and Alt coins are great..

    4. J. Frank Parnell

      Don't worry. Whenever you can't find a shirt or a new car in the color you want, you can rest assured you are a victim of the secret machinations of the color council. Even now the color council is busy deciding what "our" favorite color for next year will be.

      1. ConradsGhost

        Love the color council. Trust the color council. Give yourself over to the color council. They are the experts. They have the answers to questions you didn't know you needed to ask.

        I had no idea Pantone existed, but of course it does.

  3. Jerry O'Brien

    They said exactly the same thing about Eggshell White back in the 90s. This is a mockery of a travesty. Of a sham.

  6. DFPaul

    I sense that color in our world -- especially here in California -- is dominated by the business of leasing cars, and I guess also, renting cars. Since everyone leases now, and cares far more about their car than their apartment, the dominant color has to be something the car dealer feels can be leased or sold to someone else after 3 years (i.e., after the first lease is up and the first lessee gives up the car). I assume this is why all cars became white, grey, and black a few years ago. In the year or two before the pandemic it seems like bright blue made a run at becoming popular but it didn't stick. Then it was putty grey; that has peaked and subsided but is still around. In the last year or so I see a lot of a dark blue, but not a navy blue. A dark blue with a lot of purple in it (I think; I'm no color expert). I see lots of Toyotas that color; it's easy to mistake this color for black, which I assume is part of the point. Consider Apple's recent "midnight" color along these lines; it's very similar, and also seems to have replaced black for them.

    Then there's trucks, which are all now black or some "desert storm" related color like sand. I assume that's related to issues regarding masculinity, the desire to be seen as a "warrior", and the influence of the dreaded "Fast and Furious" movies.

    If my theory is correct -- that is, if a color lives or dies by how innocuous it is and whether car dealers will accept it for cars they hope to lease -- then this magenta is going nowhere fast.

    1. Salamander

      Here in New Mexico, I'm seeing increasing numbers of white vehicles, as people thriftily select colors that won't roast their car in the summer. Indeed, all the school buses have white tops.

      1. J. Frank Parnell

        Tesla 3's come in white as standard, any other color costs extra. Of course the Tesla Cyber Truck will only come in a brushed stainless steel metallic finish. This strategy didn't work so well for DeLorean, who discovered customers don't want their car to the same color as everyone else's, let alone the color of your water spotted kitchen sink.

        1. kaleberg

          Some years back, Fred Hayman who owned a store on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and always parked a Rolls Royce outside his shop, got a ticket for his car being a public nuisance. He quickly started selling Beverly Hills Public Nuisance perfume and organized a public protest. He called on his customers who owned Rolls Royces and had them take over all the legal parking on Rodeo Drive. It was a rather remarkable display with Rolls Royce cars, no Bentleys, of every color and with amazing paint jobs, flames, dragons, chartreuse and orange and so on. I guess if you are willing to pay that much for a car, you can get it in any color you want.

  9. cld

    I thought the color of the year was this shade of lime green, Grinch blood green, that I'm seeing on everything this Christmas season.

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