You’ve seen the New Years’ family portraits in color-coordinated clothing. My family’s guilty of practicing that. The belief is that you wear the Color of the Year to ring in the new year for a good year ahead. Who decides what the Color of the Year is? The Pantone Color Institute.

At the Pantone Color Factory, they make color guides that are like dictionaries of color. To work as a color expert in Pantone, you need to have a near-perfect color vision. Every year, their employees are required to take a color exam. They can see distinctions in hue and color that we can’t.

This year, instead of choosing a color from their books, they decided to create an entirely new color officially known as Pantone 17-3938. Commonly known as “Very Peri”, which is described as a dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet-red undertone, is the Color of the Year 2022. According to Pantone, the color blends the faithfulness and constancy of blue with the energy and excitement of red.

Clean Slate

Creating a new color was meant to symbolize the creative possibilities for the future as the world continues to learn how to live with COVID. As posted on their website, “It symbolizes the global zeitgeist of the moment and the transition we are going through in our second year of pandemic.” It also symbolizes a fresh start. Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute said, “We felt it was so important to put together a color that encapsulated the feeling of newness.”

If the color looks familiar to you, you’re probably a Friends fan thinking of Monica’s apartment. The BTS army is even claiming that it’s the BTS Year. In actuality, Very Peri was inspired by the glowing touchscreens of our devices. With the growing influence of the digital world and the ongoing pandemic, Very Peri represents the undeniable union of our real lives and our digital lives.

The Color of Inspiration

The color is said to inspire personal inventiveness, warmth, and creativity. Yes, colors affect human behavior and perception. Colors even have an impact on our mood. As studied in color psychology, there are emotional and psychological implications between colors and emotions.

Periwinkle—a part of the blue color family—has a calming effect that invokes feelings of confidence, optimism, and peace. Violet, on the other hand, is often tied to imagination and spirituality. It contains the strength and energy of the color red and the integrity of the color blue. Very Peri encompasses all of these, bringing positive energy this year.

If you want to bring this positive energy with you, simply dressing in the color or surrounding your home or workspace with it is all you have to do. Very Peri is the perfect pop of color you need in your space. It’s also an inspiring and motivational color. Aside from the personal benefits Very Peri brings, it can help manifest better relationships with the people around you.

Overall, Very Peri is a hopeful color for 2022. Laurie Pressman, Vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, said, “We’re entering this different time where we’re reimagining our future, trying to rewrite our lives and acknowledging all the unknown before us. Looking at the world with different eyes has brought us—and will continue to bring us—new solutions.”