Well, it’s time for the Pantone Color of the Year for 2022 announcement …how is it almost 2022 already?  YIKES this year fleeewww by…anyone else feel that way?  

Anyway, in case you don’t know, Pantone is a color library that is the standard for defining colors in everything from print media to product packaging. 

HOW they actually pick the color of the year is somewhat of a mystery. 

The Pantone website claims:

“The Pantone Color of the Year selection process requires thoughtful consideration and trend analysis. To arrive at the selection each year, Pantone’s color experts at the Pantone Color Institute™ comb the world looking for new color influences.” 

It may also involve a blindfold and some darts…not sure.

BUT what they choose will undoubtedly shape a lot of what we see for available products across many industries in the year ahead. So we like to be in-the-know when it comes to the Pantone Color of the Year selection.

Last year’s pick was a grave disappointment as far as I was concerned - you can see THAT disaster and some things I salvaged from the ashes in THIS post.  This year, with all the major paint companies choosing shades of green, I kind of expected Pantone’s pick to be at least green-adjacent. 

And while it is a VAST improvement over last year, it is not at all green but rather a vivid periwinkle blue called Very Peri that reminds me of some of the garden flowers at their peak.  Not bad, and a color that plays well with all those shades of green as well as many other colors.

Pantone describes their pick this way:

“Encompassing the qualities of the blues, yet at the same time possessing a violet-red undertone, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri displays a spritely, joyous attitude and dynamic presence that encourages courageous creativity and imaginative expression.”

What is new and unusual this year, is that the color was newly created for the announcement, and was also released as a collection of NFT’s of digital art created using the color.  

The cover image for the color featuring a vivid fur texture dotted with what looks to me like pimples certainly qualifies as courageous creativity…albeit a little weird for my taste.  But art is in the eye of the beholder and I’m sure someone thinks it is fabulous!

It reminds me a bit of a purple faux fur ottoman I had as a child.  It had giant plastic eyes..and possibly floppy fur ears (I can’t totally remember) but it was called Mehitable the Sittable.  NOTE: it came with that name, I did not name it!  I believe my mother gave it away in a yankee swap gift exchange many years later.  

A yankee swap, BTW, is a bizarre gift ritual whereby you wrap and gift your unwanted junk and go home with someone else’s unwanted junk (presumably to regift at a future yankee swap).  It is a ridiculous form of recycling and I’m pretty sure it sparks laughter but maybe not joy! But I digress… back to very peri…

Very Peri is a surprisingly versatile color - it pairs well with many greens of course, but also with various shades of blue, aqua, yellow, pink, and peach.  It is vibrant but not neon…and once you strip out the weird fur and pimples, it is a pretty shade.  

Here are some nature-inspired palettes featuring Benjamin Moore paint colors with Scandinavian Blue being a reasonable approximation to Pantone Very Peri

My sister loved purple and orange together as a kid, so this one is for her :). As sunrise colors, it totally works, though it would take some careful planning to pull off in a room.

So far I’ve seen mixed reviews on this as the color of the year. I think used in the right way in home decor it can be fabulous, but like any strong color choice, it requires a deft hand! What do you think of it?