Onomatopoeia of nature

2000 was the first year, in which Pantone Color Institute forecasted the color of the year, an initiative conceived to advise creative industries (e.g. interiors, product, packaging, and fashion) on the use of hues in all facets of design.

For 2017, the company based in New Jersey, U.S. has unveiled Greenery -Pantone 15-0343-, a color tone inspired by a revived foliage defined as a “tangy yellow-green” that, first and foremost, brings hope on the current status quo.

“Greenery bursts forth to provide us with the reassurance we yearn for amid a tumultuous social and political environment. Satisfying our growing desire to revitalize, it symbolizes the reconnection we seek with nature, one another and a larger purpose”, declares Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Institute.

Green light by Studio Olafur Eliasson. Social project in which a group of refugees from the Middle East was invited to participate in the assembling process (Vienna, Austria. 2016)

It is not the first time that this hue is used as a resource for sociopolitical speeches. During the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in the United States, the anti-war and civil rights movements embraced it like a way to look forward.

Brought to the ongoing context, this should be a call for the understanding among humans, since design can mean a critical outlet to restore, regenerate and reinvigorate societies, as the philosophy of the color states.

Thus, the more submerged people are in modern life, the greater their innate craving to immerse themselves in the physical beauty and inherent unity of the natural world, adds the global authority on its website. For this reason, Greenery is now being pulled to the forefront as an omnipresent concept around the world.

Written by Pablo Hurtado @pabloihurtado