Pantone's colors of the year for 2021 are Illuminating and Ultimate Gray. I love yellow and gray together; they remind me of a pencil or a classic yellow and chrome bicycle. I spent some time browsing through the #pantone2021 tag on Instagram and saved a few of my favorite images.
In writing, you create tone with imagery and metaphors. Because Pantone selects their color of the year at the start of the year, the shadow of the year before casts itself over the outlook for the year ahead.
2020 was a year that will ripple through at least the next decade, and I don't think we are in a place where we can see how profound its effects have been and will be. There is a lot of apprehensive optimism pinned on 2021. We know any normal will be new. We know the first half of 2021 will look a lot like 2020. We will continue managing the fatigue of cautious distancing but with a new, fragile glimmer of hope.
Pantone doesn't often choose two colors as "color of the year," and these two colors almost feel like opposites. Not just gray, Ultimate Gray—a total light-blocking curtain and an oversized weighted blanket wrapping you in heavy stillness. A gray that forces us to fold inside ourselves. And then, Illuminating—a wintery yellow with a call-to-action name.
I see these colors and feel sunlight beaming through a frosted window. While 2020 was an uncomfortably dark year for me, I hope I will appreciate the insights (and illuminations) I earned in my discomfort. I hope I can feel warmth from the sunlight that flickers out from the dark clouds still on the way. And I hope that all of you have a beautiful 2021.
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