Pantone Colour of the Year 2022 – Is it blue or purple?

I’m guessing you’ve already seen Pantone’s colour of the year, and you’ve probably already asked yourself the question ‘is it blue or is it purple?.’ I know I have.

I ran a quick poll over on my Instagram Stories and a resounding 96% said it purple.

So I looked up Pantone 17-3938 in my Pantone Fashion, Home + Interiors specifier, which is quite a hefty catalogue, to look at the colour in real life as our screens can make a colour look very different. And would you believe it, it’s not there. They have only gone and created a new colour!

Pantone say that it’s a “blue hue with a vivifying violet red undertone.” If they are saying it’s blue + red, then that would mean purple, right?

And yet they’ve called this colour ‘Very Peri’ which is short of periwinkle, which is a blue.

Confused…?

I would love to know what colour you see, and do you feel it matches the name? And I’d also love to know what colour name you would choose instead. Drop me a comment below.

Wishing you a colourful day!
Karen

P.S. Pantone are sending me the actual colour early January 2022. Like most things, the delivery has been hampered by shipping delays, but I’m looking forward to seeing if this colour is really purple or blue or is it something in between.