Pantone’s 2024 Color of the Year Just Took Us All by Surprise
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Since it was first introduced in 2010, the peach emoji has come to symbolize everything from a stone fruit, a particularly taut derriere, and—of course—a booty call. In 2024, however, it will be the color on everyone’s walls, according to Pantone. Today, the global color authority named Pantone 13-1023 Peach Fuzz as its 2024 Color of the Year (COTY).
The hue, one of more than nearly 20,000 in the company’s color library, is a blushing orange-pink. It’s a warm, comforting color that Pantone’s experts feel will epitomize the mood in the year ahead. Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, describes Peach Fuzz as “nurturing,” and “warm and welcoming.”
“In a world that can seem very harsh, people are looking for colors that soothe, colors that are soft and warm, colors that nurture and provide us with comfort,” Eiseman says.
The announcement marks the 25th anniversary of Pantone’s annual COTY unveiling—an event that sets the standard for industries ranging from interiors to fashion to packaging design. And while Peach Fuzz may feel like a sharp turn from its showy sister, Pantone’s 2023 COTY Viva Magenta, Eiseman says next year’s choice marks an “evolution”—both of trends and the global mood.
“Viva Magenta was an animated red shade, both powerful and empowering, that encouraged experimentation and self-expression, encouraging us as we endeavored to write a new narrative for our lives,” she says. “As we move into 2024, we are seeing that at a time of turmoil in many aspects of our lives, our need for nurturing, empathy, and compassion is growing stronger, as are our imaginings and desire for a more peaceful future.”
Pantone’s favored 2024 tint also echoes the coming year’s “Barbenheimer”-esque array of competing COTYs, which have ranged from dark, moody hues like slate and evergreen (see Behr’s Cracked Pepper) to a spectrum of optimistic blues (take Benjamin Moore’s Blue Nova and Sherwin-Williams’s appropriately named Upward). “Different companies and brands are going to want to send different messages depending upon the products they offer,” Eiseman says “There is never just one trend, and some may want to send a message of protective cover or mystery and intrigue.”
One thing was for sure: Variations of peach popped up virtually everywhere the Pantone team looked. “We were seeing colors in the peach family…in all areas of design from clothing and color cosmetics to carpets and cars,” Eiseman explains, speaking to their research process that kicks off in May. “As we spoke with people and zeroed in on the mood and what people were looking for, we started to zone into this particular family of color.”
“We did not feel there were other color families that were strong contenders,” she adds.
And Pantone isn’t the only company keen on peach: Benjamin Moore named Pristine, a barely there peach, among its trending array of shades, while HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams homed in on a sandy tangerine called Persimmon for next year.
Color experts see these hues as a new cadre of neutral—a trend paint companies and color forecasters have been predicting since the pandemic. Eiseman, for her part, thinks Peach Fuzz works perfectly as a wall color, especially in bathrooms, where, she points out, it is “very flattering to all skin tones.” She also sees it as the ideal color for accessories, ranging from rugs to countertop kitchen appliances. “With that said, we would like designers to bring the color into their designs in a way that expresses their vision.” In other words, don’t be taken aback in the year ahead if your designer sends you a peach emoji.
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