The Pantone Color Institute has chosen the calming, confident Classic Blue as its colour of the year for 2020. Kate Middleton wore an outfit of this colour on her recent trip to Pakistan.
According to the vice president of the global purveyors of colour consulting, trendspotting and analysis Laurie Pressman, “the colour is an anchor offering stability, constancy and connection.”
“It’s a reassuring presence,” she said.
Pressman and her team scoured the worlds of art, fashion and home decor, along with commercial, graphic and industrial design, to come up with the pick.
Patone began the decade by choosing Cerulean, the colour of the daytime sky, to begin the new millennium (2000), while Classic Blue is the sky at dusk as the new decade commences.
“It has depth to it, but it’s a colour of anticipation because we’re looking ahead,” Pressman said speaking about the colour. “The day is over. We’re looking forward to the evening. What’s going to come?”
Classic Blue is a vibrant yet non-aggressive and easily relatable colour, she said. It’s also among nature’s anthocyanin pigments possessing antioxidant and other health-fostering benefits.
“Many of us feel stressed, completely overloaded,” Pressman said. “We live these 24/7 lifestyles. We’re anxious. There’s so much uncertainty and unrest, no matter where you are. With that we’ve seen this whole increased focus on wellness and self-care.”
The timeless colour is also gender neutral and seasonless, mixing well with other shades throughout the spectrum yet making a strong statement on its own.
The anointed blue also plays into the sustainability movement.
“We have all this focus on buy less, buy good, so people aren’t throwing things into a landfill,” Pressman said. “You read about buying things to last and this is a timeless blue shade. It’s always there and you’re comfortable with it, like blue jeans.”
For offices, it offers an air of security, she said. For kitchens, it’s a top accent color in appliances and walls.
“Everybody’s comfortable with blue,” Pressman said. “We know it. We like it.”
