I have a ton of fun every year sifting through the endless design possibilities of the new Pantone yearly colors. I print copies of them to hang on my Design Wall. I pour through my pattern books, past designs and ideas folder with the colors right next to me. I love to take a printed color copy of the color swatches with me to yarn stores or conference markets.
I’m not going to lie. When I first started looking at the new Pantone 2020/2021 colors, I was more than a little disappointed. Then I realized I was looking at the Spring/Summer colors for both New York and London. Whew! What a relief! I’m not really a Spring/Summer color type of gal. It makes perfect sense that those palettes would not speak to me and open up design possibilities. Don’t get me wrong – I design in colors I don’t love from time to time because I have a gap in my design colors or I’m following editorial needs for a publication.
But the colors that I really love are so much more fun to work with! So every year when I make the time to pour over the new Pantone palettes, I can spend hours envisioning designs or looking for just the right shades of yarns in different weights. I can fill and empty imaginary carts with sweater quantities of yarn for days and days. This year I wasn’t feeling it all. Until I realized my mistake. Now that I’m looking at the correct palettes I see that I actually love a lot of the colors on both palettes. The colors are normally similar but not exactly the same across the New York and London palettes. Though some colors do appear on both.
I love 8 of the 14 colors in the 2020/2021 Autumn/Winter New York colors shown above (Amberglow, Samba, Classic Blue, Ultramarine Green, Fired Brick, Magenta Purple, Blue Depths and Military Olive).
I love even more of the 2020/2021 Autumn/Winter London colors shown above with 10 of them making my list (Mandarin Red, Samba, True Blue, Exuberance, Military Olive, Ultramarine Green, Strong Blue, Burnt Henna, Dress Blues and Sleet). (Side note: I’m thrilled to see that my next top down tee design sample garment is knit in a clear, bright red named Serrano that reads very similar to the Mandarin Red above.)
It always amazes me to find a color that speaks to me on one of the palettes but not the other palette. This year I completely missed the color Sleet on the New York palette but found I love it on the London palette. I think the Blue Depths next to it on the New York palette did not work as well for me as the color Dress Blues next to it on the London palette. Or maybe it is the Military Olive on the New York palette that throws me off. I’m never exactly sure.
Sifting through these colors every year is something I really enjoy. I hope you see some color here that inspires you too. And I hope we have a 2021 full of color we love.
