Pantone recently announced their colour of the year: Ultra Violet 18-3838.
At first glance, it is a difficult colour to work with…
Being a web designer, my first thought on any colour is how will it work on a website? My next thoughts are how will it work in real life? How can it translate into fashion and interior design? Purple was shown in Gucci and Balenciaga’s catwalk shows for spring/summer 2018 with much hype, however most High Street stores are full of lilac, yellows, soft pinks and fuschia pinks.
Initially, I struggled with Ultra Violet, it is so dark compared to last year’s colour of the year “Greenery” and felt very autumnal to me, just at the point we were heading towards spring. I visited Pantone’s website for inspiration and to study their colour harmonies.
Their first colour harmony is called “Purple Haze” and includes some very muted and smokey tones. A little boring?
The next one is called “Kindred Spirit” again with muted tones and feels very girly:
This one is called “Drama Queen” – I think the name says it all! Interestingly, the pink colours are everywhere at the moment…
“Intrigue” – feels very wintery:
There are other colour harmonies, check out Pantone’s website.
This definitely gave me inspiration in how to use Ultra Violet, the colour harmonies seem to work best when it is used as an accent colour rather thain the main event. They also made me realise that I have some of these colours in my wardrobe already!
Verdict
I’m yet to see this colour trickle down to the high street in interior design and only seen small glimpses of it in fashion. Maybe we will see more of Ultra Violet as we head into autumn. Will I be using it in web design? Hmmm, not so sure…
