Pantone Color of the Year 2013 – Emerald

Pantone has revealed the 2013 color of the year — Emerald (17-5641). Pantone Color Institute executive director Leatrice Eiseman explains that the color is right for 2013 because it “promotes change, renewal, and clarity in a complex world.” According to the Pantone Color of the Year 2013 web page, emerald reflects elegance, beauty, well-being, and balance.

Eiseman and the Pantone team expect that emerald will be particularly prevalent in the coming year in the fashion, interior, and beauty categories, but it can be easily integrated into marketing and design for brands that are looking for a change. As explained on the Pantone website, that’s because  green is “the color of growth, renewal and prosperity – no other color conveys regeneration more than green. For centuries, many countries have chosen green to represent healing and unity.”

You can see how emerald green is being used on products in the Pinterest Holiday Look Book board from Pantone that is dedicated to the 2013 color of the year. It features clothing, a coffee maker, shoes, bags, notebooks, cameras, and more. Pantone also offers mood boards from its website featuring Emerald 17-5641 with downloadable color palettes and links to creative submissions that use emerald on Pantone Canvas — a site where people can share their creative work, view portfolios from top designers, and find inspiration. This creative use of social media marketing and crowdsourcing is integrated with Pantone’s efforts to spread the word about the color of the year via Twitter and Facebook.

The selection of emerald as the 2013 color of the year comes on the heels of the vibrant 2012 color of the year – tangerine. Pantone explains, “The 2012 color of the year, PANTONE 17-1463 Tangerine Tango, a spirited reddish orange, provided the energy boost we needed to recharge and move forward. Emerald, a vivid verdant green, enhances our sense of well-being further by inspiring insight as well as promoting balance and harmony.”

You can see the evolution of the Pantone color of the year since 2007 in the image below. Trends have certainly leaned toward bright colors without crossing over into neon territory. Instead, rich, bold hues have been selected consistently over the past seven years.

While the Pantone color of the year typically doesn’t have a broad effect on marketing and design, it does have an effect on some design trends, particularly in fashion, beauty, and interior design as mentioned above. What really stands out about the 2013 Pantone color of the year announcement is how well Pantone has leveraged integrated marketing to spread the word, boost the online conversation about the Pantone brand, and garner publicity through articles, news features, and blog posts (like this one) from people who love color. It’s a great example of a company turning an announcement into a marketing opportunity.

Images: Pantone LLC

Author

Susan Gunelius

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Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.

She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.