There is a rare, satisfying pleasure in dreaming up color palettes, be they for a magazine, identity, or something else entirely. Rare because seldom does anything in life display such reasoned, well-thought-out balance as a much-agonized-over color scheme. Yet sometimes it’s hard to know just where to begin.
Thankfully, Pantone has weighed in with its regular forecast: “Discovery,” the Fall/Winter 2014/2015 edition of the Pantone View Color Planner. Published bi-annually, these planners are essentially reports designed to address the various color palettes to be found in everything from cosmetics and clothing fashions to automobiles and graphic design. “Discovery” features the following palettes, described in the usual Purplest (PMS 18-2929) of prose:
- The Essence. “Contemporary warm tones are restrained, pasteurized and processed, homogeneous and emulsifying; while, at the same time, compactness is expressed through solid, uncontaminated uniform colors.” (Pasteurized?)
- No Limits “combines heightened and voluptuous colors to create a beguiling ambience with a dramatic cacophony of color that evokes an atmosphere full of vivid richness and blissful excess.”
- From Beyond “delves into a world of violet, red, lilac and burned brown hues, where the colors interweave and blend continuously in complex fluxes.”
- Uncovering. “Discoveries are documented through fountain-pen black, charcoal, sepia ink and colored chalks.”
- Making. “Colors are inspired by a rich auburn, caramel and brown glow, with highlights of hot orange, red and turquoise.”
- Voyage “is a journey through nature, through yellow spaces, where mustard shades mixed with green and turquoise reveal an absence of time and space.”
- Breakthrough. “Greens and blues emerge from depths of ghostly, futuristic and unfathomable landscapes.”
Each palette ends with a 1”-x-4” perforated swatch, while the book itself features a DVD full of color-themed photos that can be played as a movie set to appropriate mood music for each color combination.
