Pantone Announces Colour of The Year 2012

On pantone.com the rationale behinds this colour choice reads:

The 2011 color of the year, PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle, encouraged us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. Tangerine Tango, a spirited reddish orange, continues to provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward.

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

Tangerine Tango is a very visual word, although tango is traditionally associated with a deep red (combined with black), more so than an orange colour.

Off course this announcement works as a marketing stunt for Pantone it self, but never the less, the previous colours of the year have featured prominently in fashion and design thorughout that particular year. See for yourself!

Branding Santa

As colour increases brand recoqnition by 80%, many brands try to claim ownership of one specific colour or a colour combination. One of the most succesfull brands in the world to do this is Coca Cola and their ownership of the colour red.

Coca Cola is in fact responsible for  the red and white colour of Santa Claus. Santa was originally seen in mostly green, blue or auburn garments. But in 1931 the illustrator Haddon Sunbloom was briefed on creating a specific Coca Cola version of Santa for their christmas campagin. Sunbloom used one of the Coca Cola sales reps as a model for the rotound and jolly Santa Claus and painted him in the Coca Cola brand colours.

What started of as a branding excersize has now become a tradition. Today we can’t  imagine that Santa Claus is any other colour than red and white.

To the rigth the ad in its entirety.