The colour of 2023 is not Barbie pink or Valentino’s Pink PP but an electric mishmash of red and pink. The Pantone Color Institute has called it, the "powerful and empowering" Viva Magenta 18-1750.
While consumer research company WGSN recently predicted that a softer, more serence “Digital Lavender” (which speaks of “hope and balance”) will rule 2023, Pantone believes the bright magenta offers an “endless new ecosystem to be explored, called ‘the Magentaverse.’”
Also read: Source: A compendium inspired by Pantone’s colours for 2021, Ultimate Grey + Illuminating
On its website, Pantone explains, the Viva Magenta “vibrates with vim and vigor.” It describes the shade rooted in nature, descending from the red family “and expressive of a new signal of strength. Viva Magenta is brave and fearless, and a pulsating color whose exuberance promotes a joyous and optimistic celebration, writing a new narrative. … it 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."
Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of Pantone Color Institute, said: “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.”
She adds: “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.”
The colour of 2022 was Very Peri, or Pantone 17-3938 Very Peri, which displayed “a carefree confidence and a daring curiosity that animates our creative spirit”.
Pantone described it is “as a symbol of the global zeitgeist of the moment and the transition we are going through. 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. Digital design helps us to stretch the limits of reality, opening the door to a dynamic virtual world where we can explore and create new color possibilities. With trends in gaming, the expanding popularity of the metaverse and rising artistic community in the digital space Very Peri illustrates the fusion of modern life and how color trends in the digital world are being manifested in the physical world and vice versa.”
Also read: Ultra Violet: Pantone colour of 2018