‘Classic Blue’ Chosen As Pantone Colour Of The Year 2020

Classic Blue (19-4052) has been chosen to be the colour of the year 2020 by the Pantone Color Institute. The Pantone Color Institute is the business unit within Pantone that highlights the top seasonal runway colors, selects the Pantone Color of the Year, forecasts global color trends, and advises companies on color for product and brand visual identity.

For over 20 years the “Colour of the Year” has been crucially influencing multiple industries in their product development and purchasing decisions like for example fashion, home furnishings, and industrial design, as well as product packaging and graphic design.

So, what is this year’s colour like? Well, it looks like this…

Well, actually it doesn’t. As the Pantone printing system is a colour referencing system for print, there is a very strong possibility that what you are looking at right now is slightly different from the original swatch, but we will not dwell on that for too long.

A stark departure from 2019’s vibrant Living Coral (Pantone 16-1546) and 2018’s effervescent Ultra Violet (Pantone 18-3838), Classic Blue is a strong and solid navy blue that is almost regal in appearance. The company has described the colour as follows “Instilling calm, confidence, and connection, this enduring blue hue highlights our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era.” And given the global developments that have occurred this year, the description almost seems written in a prophetic way!
An absolute cornerstone of the colour spectrum in the across the world, blue is one of the most versatile colour families, and its popularity is not new, with Egyptian Blue being considered the first synthetically produced colour pigment (dating back to over 2000BC),

The impressive range of colours available in the blue family allows the colour to represent different emotions and meanings across its hues. Light blues are often relaxed and calming (great for natural topics), bright blues can be energizing and refreshing (great for exciting brands) while deep blues are used extensively to represent calmness and responsibility (making it a fantastic choice for serious topics and sectors). Dark blues such as Classic Blue are strong and reliable. This emotive value has been associated with peace, regality, and spiritual/religious connotations in many cultures for centuries. A great example of this is the Western representation of The Virgin Mary, who is generally depicted wearing blue robes.

As the year goes on you should see this colour cropping up subtly across all aspects of the design world, from home furnishings to website design. So keep and eye out, and enjoy the smug feeling you get by informing your friends and family why there is so much blue about this year!