Pantone’s put its thing down, flipped it and reversed it this year. Every year, the colour partner for graphic and textile design chooses the colour of the year.

However, this year, rather than choose an existing colour, Pantone has created one of its own…

The new colour, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri, has been specifically crafted to reflect the times we’re living in. A dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet red undertone, the company describes it as “an empowering mix of newness… opening us up to a new vision as we rewrite our lives”.

This melange of tones symbolises our physical and online lives merging in new and exciting ways – such as the expanding metaverse and the rise of the digital art community – the new colour represents the joyous and dynamic spirit of modern creativity.

To further embody this relationship between the physical and digital Pantone has teamed up with Microsoft to bring Very Peri to life across Microsoft products.

Microsoft recognises how powerful colour is from a UX perspective because it’s such a universal language. By short-cutting the journey to our core brain systems, colour is able to instantly and effectively convey things like mood, personality and the essential information to users.

To harness its power, Microsoft has thoughtfully incorporated PANTONE 17–3938 Very Peri into new Microsoft Teams backgrounds, along with a palette of complementary hues to bring fresh energy and personality to meetings. The new hue will also appear in the newest PowerPoint templates, Windows 11 wallpapers, and an Edge browser theme.

We can expect to see the colour infused across some of the most popular Microsoft tools throughout 2022, giving its productivity apps a new sense of visual possibility throughout, which creative professionals, in particular, should respond to positively.