2021—A Year of Yellow. And Gray.

As 2020 comes to a close (good bye and good riddance), Pantone, the color swatch people, have once again made their forecast for the color (or in this case, colors) that they feel will best reflect the upcoming year.

And their picks for 2021 are: yellow and gray. According to Pantone “It’s a combination that speaks to the resilience, the optimism and hope and positivity that we need, as we reset, renew, reimagine and reinvent.”

Of course, since they are experts in color, they have chosen a very specific yellow and a very specific gray. But to me (and I am not exactly a color amateur), the colors look pretty much like a generic yellow (nice and sunny, but still just yellow) and an even more generic gray.

I always find their color picks interesting, if not quite to my tastes. The green from 2017 was not one of my favorites. The year before the colors were a very nice baby blue and light pink, that as I recall, I saw very little of after Pantone’s initial announcement that those were the colors that would trend in the coming year. (Big news, that was the first time that Pantone selected two colors for the year.) 2019 was a lovely coral, that to the best of my knowledge I never saw again in 2019. 2018’s color was a basic purple.

So, what to make of yellow and gray. Personally, it reminds me a bit of caution tape. Which, with 2020 hindsight, would have made a much better pick for 2020, you know, in hindsight.