Thursday 24 December 2015

Rose Quartz and Serenity: A Review

Alright, so Pantone officially released the Colour of the Year for 2016.

The Colour of the Year, this year, happens to be two colours - which seems to defy the very idea of the colour of the year!

Rose Quartz and Serenity (a very beautiful pale pink and an equally appealing pale blue).


There is a convoluted logic given in the press releases about why there are two colours which I find more of a publicity stunt than a real reason. The fact that there is gender fluidity in many fields is the broad reason given for the selection of the two colours. But this in itself is a self defeating argument. The two colours chosen happen to be the two colours most commonly associated with the two genders - pink and blue. These specific pantone shades seem to be very close to what people most commonly associate with a baby pink for a girl and baby blue for a boy. So it becomes difficult to fathom how these two gender biased colours are selected to signify gender fluidity.

If one is able to go beyond these arguments and just focus on the two colours, there is reason to cheer. These two colours seem to reflect the movement towards a finer aesthetic taste, a conscious attempt to move towards peace, the acceptance of subtle nuances over jarring loudness and the confidence to choose shades of innocence over shades of authority. Both these colours individually and together have a certain sense of ethereal sensuality. It is also in sync with the preference of minimalistic, pastel, soft, nude shades for design, interiors, packaging, apparel and even makeup. These are colours of emotions rather than colours of reason.

Critical reviews have issues with these colours looking too baby-showerish and not serious enough. Regardless of these criticisms, these two shades will be dominating the design world in 2016.

I give a wholehearted thumbs up for the two shades chosen for 2016.