WELCOME – VERY PERI

How do you know you are living in dynamic times? The first indicator might be the iconic master color company Pantone deviating from its long-established process for choosing the Color of the Year. This year's color – Very Peri.

For 2022, Pantone decided to create Very Peri, a wholly new color, rather than picking one from its vast arsenal of existing hues. Very Peri is a periwinkle hue that the company says combines the steady tranquility of blue with an energetic infusion of red.

According to Juliana Barr, a member of Darvin Furniture’s in-house design team, the Pantone Color of the Year is something she really pays attention to. "People's tastes in color have been evolving year to year for a long time and the Color of the Year reflects the mood that impacts many design decisions," she says.

The annual task of forecasting the color that will best reflect the year ahead has been a more than 20-year endeavor that Pantone has embraced as a leader in color technology and design. The importance of the Color of the Year is as much about the process and what it reflects as the final color selection. A vital element of this year's selection process took into consideration the new vision of the world coming into focus.

"People have been going through the pandemic now for two years and they are craving some stability and optimism. This year's Very Peri features a calming blue hue with touches of red that give it a bit of edge and excitement about what's possible in the future," says Barr. "People need that right now."

Barr says she already has customers scheduling her to come into their homes to bring needed change in the shape of new furniture, artwork, accents, and area rugs. The inclusion of the Very Peri hue will definitely be a part of the conversation.

"It is literally the happiest and the warmest of all the blue hues," says Pantone Color Institute's Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman, describing the shade. "Because of that red undertone, it introduces an empowering feeling of newness, and newness is what we're looking for."

While the color combo may be a symbol for the future, it is also symbiotic for what many people are doing as they try to cope with the pandemic and all the uncertainty it brings to everyday life.

"We've gone through so many challenges over this time, we don't know what's going to pop up from one day to the next," says Pantone's Vice President Laurie Pressman. "It's curiosity that's helping people to get through these difficult times. What we would call courageous creativity."

As society continues to recognize color as a critical form of communication, a way to express ideas, emotions, and engage, "the complexity of this new red-violet-infused blue hue highlights the expansive possibilities that lay before us," says Pressman.