Design Moment: Pantone Living Coral, 2019

As well as long being in the business of making colours, Pantone is in the business of forecasting – annually announcing the Colour of the Year. For 2019 it is Pantone 16-1546 Living Coral, which the US-based company describes as “an animating and life-affirming shade of orange with a golden undertone”.

In a description that shades hyperbole, it explains that it “chose the natural colour because coral embraces us with warmth and nourishment to provide comfort and buoyancy in our continually shifting environment”.

Vibrancy

For those of us who lived through the Austrian-blind loving 1980s (or knicker blinds as they were known) often made in shades of coral to match the walls, the appeal mightn’t be so clear, but Pantone says colour number 16-1546 will work on social media where its “vibrancy and buoyancy captivates our attention”, in interiors, fashion – both male and female – and in beauty. Used in product design it will “appeal to our desire for products exhibiting humanising and heartening characteristics”.

And before you say that Pantone’s colour of 2018, ultra violet, didn’t make much of an impact on your life, consider that its colour of 2017 was green, seen everywhere from catwalks to interiors this year, proving that trends take time to trickle down.