Pantone announced their colour for the new decade 2020. The brand new Colour of the Year is Classic Blue, Pantone 19-4052.

The colour is said to instil ‘calm, confidence and connection’ and is a shade that ‘we can always rely on’. The shade is rich and close to cobalt, between navy and royal.

Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute says: ‘Classic Blue provides an anchoring foundation. A boundless blue evocative of the vast and infinite evening sky, Classic Blue encourages us to look beyond the obvious to expand our thinking; challenging us to think more deeply, increase our perspective and open the flow of communication’.

Pantone’s colour of the year has become a ritual for the creative industry. Pantone decide on the colour looking at difference influences: fashion, marketing, social media. The first colour was selected back in 2000, but Pantone only began marketing the colour by issuing a press release from 2007.

The influence of colour of the year has increasingly grown in the world of design and brand marketing since 2007. Hundreds of brands now design products colour of the year they tend to use the colour for marketing campaigns or new products, for example brands like Apple and Kitchen Aid have released products in the colour of the year.

It will be interesting to see how the year pans out and how Classic Blue provides creative inspiration across marketing, advertising, design, branding and product design.