marsala – Pantone’s color of the year

pantone color of the year 2015

Pantone announced that their official color of 2015 is Marsala, a brownish red that evokes the richness of the Italian wine it’s named for.

If you’re not familiar with Pantone, they’re a company who, according to their website, is the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries. They have the famous Pantone color chip books that, as a graphic designer, I use as my guide to select ink colors for printing.

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Last year Pantone picked Radiant Orchid as their 2014 color of the year. A beautiful jewel tone that was a combination of pink and purple. Check out my post about Radiant Orchid here. I even painted a Radiant Orchid print – get that freebie here. In 2013, Brilliant Emerald was their top color choice and Tangerine Tango was the 2012 pick.

Now, I’m not going to sugar coat this. I love the sophisticated richness that this hue evokes. And I love when it’s paired with such colors like robin’s egg blue, golden yellows, and grays. And it also pairs well with a variety of metallics, like gold, rose gold and copper. However, I am not a huge marsala fan.

chicken marsala

I am a huge chicken marsala fan. But that’s something very different.

I was hoping Pantone chose a blue for this year. A nice deep cobalt or a green infused gray-blue. Or even a golden yellow, making me think of the ever-so-distant springtime. But marsala is their pick and I’m going with it. I know, it is beautiful. And, unlike the Radiant Orchid from last year, I do have hints of this color in my world – in our home, clothing and cosmetics.

So, to help me get a little more excited about this color choice, I decided to explore the marsala trend. It worked. Grab a glass of wine {get it?} and enjoy these products in the beautiful marsala hue.

marsala montage