Pantone cranks up the whalesong In case you thought common-sense outfits like Pantone - the "global authority on colour" - were immune to rebranding madness, symptomised by the overwhelming desire to give forth in Strategy Boutique Newspeak, it's our sad duty to bring to your attention this announcement regarding the company's "colour of the year": Pantone …
Apparently, there is something in the air that will make purple the color for 2008.
I have a web site on which I've placed drawings of a number of computer front panels. Just over the last few days, I've finally bit the bullet, and added drawings of a few models of the PDP-11, a computer which had a color scheme dominated by purple.
But it's a reddish purple, not a bluish purple, so I'm still out of fashion. Maybe if I developed an interest in Roman emperors...
Haha, good one. I want to know what happened to the conservative pantonites of old, that gave my job producing leaflets, menus and other such world-shattering pieces of art 256 shades of black.
Actually the colour of the year for 2008 will be blood red. Revolution man, lets bring done the fascists and erm.. no, wait.. if we do that how will we sign on?
As shown on their own page, even. Who are they trying to kid? Certainly not graphic design professionals, nor most of the rest of us.
A rather dull, depressing dark blue is all. You could do better yourself with even a cheapo paint program.
Better find me coat.
On a more serious note, Pantone® is one of the few places you can get a nice set of reference colors for doing reasonable color matching with remote colleagues. Four years ago I bought all my friends the Pantone® Shopping Color Guide, a small sampler of a few hundred of the most common Pantone® colors used in consumer products. At US$20 each, these are great little "stocking stuffers" for Christmas.
Since all of us have the same color reference, when we exchange decorating or fashion ideas we all use the same color pallet. For example, my tailor wanted my opinion of some fabric she'd found for a cocktail dress I'd commissioned her to do for my wife. A photo of the fabric in an email, along with the Pantone® color references for the different shades in the material, and I could immediately tell what accessories would match with the fabric colors.
This may seem "Paris Hilton" trivial, but it makes some of the more difficult shopping decisions MUCH easier.
OK, let me put an El Reg spin on this.
Ask your girlfriend or wife to show you her favorite clothes. When she's not around, get your Pantone® Shopping Guide out and get the color matches from these items. Jot them down, then go to the mall and find some nice little "accessories" that match the colors that you recorded from your Pantone® Guide. Surprise her with these on occasions - and she'll be totally AMAZED that you got the PERFECT match for her outfit.
Guaranteed to increase your snogging by 50%.
You single guys: take your Pantone® Guide with you when shopping for home furnishings at IKEA or similar stores. Go during business hours when most guys are off at work and the only shoppers are cute girls picking up decorator items for their apartments. Wear a Hawaiian shirt, nice jeans and fan your Pantone® guide around in plain sight when the girls are watching. If you don't get a couple of invites or phone numbers...take a bath.
As I get me coat, you can find the Shopping Color Guide here:
http://www.pantone.com/pages/products/product.aspx?pid=327&ca=4
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