While 2023 is still weeks away, the hue masters at Pantone have already named next year's official color: “Viva Magenta.”
Described as a “nuanced crimson red tone,” the color is “an unconventional shade for an unconventional time," according to the company.
"Pantone’s Color of The Year, Viva Magenta 18-1750, vibrates with vim and vigor," reads a description on Pantone's website. "It is a 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 is something the world could really use right now, according to the Pantone Color Institute’s vice president, Laurie Pressman.
“The last few years were transformative in many ways in terms of people’s sense of self, and the way well-being, priorities and identity are being thought about,” Pressman explained in a press release. “As a result, space has been created where we are free to explore and be accepted for exactly who we feel we are, whether it be in a cybernetic universe, a conventional space, or a magical blend of both.”
It's what Pantone has dubbed “The Magentaverse," and when it comes to the colors that surround us, it's the trendy space we can all expect to reside in soon. Pantone and its creative partner, Huge, worked with the AI generative tool Midjourney to create “a visual manifestation of” 2023's go-to color and shared the resulting video on Instagram.
In the caption that accompanied the clip, the shade is referred to as a "balance between warm and cool, PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta is also a hybrid color, one that comfortably straddles the physical and virtual, evocative of our multi-dimensional world. Assertive but not aggressive, it is a carmine red that does not boldly dominate but instead takes a 'fist in a velvet glove' approach. Exuding dynamism, PANTONE 18-1750 Viva Magenta is a transformative red tone capable of driving design to create a more positive future."