“Animating and life affirming” — that’s how Pantone describes Living Coral, the company’s 2019 color of the year. The New Jersey-based company is best known for its Pantone Matching System, used in printing, colored paint fabric and plastics. But around this time, it stakes out an early claim on the New Year by naming the color the company predicts will be the signature hue for the next 12 months. I don’t know if it is the company’s commercial clairvoyance or if I am easily persuaded, but somehow each year’s color seems, well, matched to the current communal mood.
I sure felt that way about Ultra Violet, the color pick for this over year. Not just violet — Ultra Violet. Some described the bold deep color as "in your face." And that is exactly how I would describe 2018: 24/7 in your face. I felt like an emotional ping pong ball, careening from the unrelenting political tumult to back-to-back tragedies, one day a deadly school shooting, the next devastating fires or floods.
Like so many others, I was so overwhelmed most of the time that occasional escapism was not enough of a stress reliever. I needed more than that, and I wasn’t alone. I watched friends gobble up daily distractions like HQ trivia, and binge-watch shows on Netflix to take the edge off the tension. And like me, lots of folks immersed themselves in the fine details of Meghan and Harry’s royal wedding. Whether good news or bad, everything seemed pushed to the extreme, "extra" to use the current slang. No question 2018 was definitely Ultra Violet.
But if the Pantone predictors are to be believed, all that is about to change. Living Coral is not exactly on the opposite side of the color wheel from Ultra Violet — more like color adjacent, a “shade of orange with a golden undertone,” according to the company. But the tenor and tone it evokes is a world away from a strong purple. We’re still coping with the sharp divisions of the in your face. It’s been wearying and depressing.
In naming Living Coral, Pantone foresees a shift in our communal mood. Living Coral suggests warmth and closeness and speaks to a renewed focus on hearth and home — home cooking, talking to your neighbors and civil public conversations. Experts agree that color therapy, as it’s known, does influence how we feel and act. They just don’t know how much or how long it has an impact on behavior, and they say each of us reacts differently. But, even understanding all that, I’m open to anything that might help more of us embrace the promised warmth of Living Coral. Besides, coral is one of my favorite colors. Happy New Year!
