Non-art-geeks may not already know about this, but every year around this time the major colour companies declare a ‘colour of the year’ (ie, Pantone has declared 2010 to be a Turquoise year.)
Of course, experts can’t even discuss straight data without arguments cropping up over interpretation of said data. Experts announcing a colour naturally ends with all the colour nerds playing with entirely different colours.
Can the leading color authorities really forecast a color trend anyway? I mean, if you’re the most influential voice in a field and you forecast something… You’re not really forecasting, you’re telling people what they want. We don’t think people want to be told what they want. We want you to tell us what you want.
Announcing a single color to represent the entire year is a lot like announcing a single song to represent the entire year. Yes, there will be a clear top grossing or breakout song of 2010, but that song can’t really speak for every person. Nor can a single color. BUT, every person can speak for their own color of 2010… and that’s what we want you to do.
– COLOURlovers
So COLOURlovers (…and actually probably a few other colour-sites, too, though COLOURlovers is the only one i visit often…) set up a choose-it-yourself Colour of the Year page. Right now the most popular is Hope for Tomorrow Orange – my year, however, is shaping up to be more As a Kid Yellow.
I love it. Yellow’s not my favourite colour, but it matches my plans for the upcoming year so perfectly. Blue is too mellow, pink is too gentle, hot pinks and reds are just all wrong. Yellow is ‘i have the energy to edit this novel’. Yellow is ‘i can do anything and what i don’t know how to do, i can learn’. Yellow is flying-wild enthusiasm and excitement. Yellow is so totally my 2010.
And the person who originally named this particular shade on COLOURlovers called it ‘As a Kid’. It really doesn’t get any more perfect than that.
random other stuff…
- What No One Will Tell You About the New Year – makes the quite accurate point of ‘the shift from December 31st to January 1st is no different than June 17th to the 18th’ (better known as ‘you’re the same person now as you were in 2009 and just pretending something magical will happen at midnight won’t make it so.’) Not to discourage New Year’s resolutions… just pointing out they won’t necessarily turn out better than resolutions any other time of the year. Though there is some mental boost to starting something precisely on calendar dates, as anyone who has stayed up all Halloween night to start novelling exactly at midnight on the first of November can attest…
- On the subject of resolutions, designing and working towards a perfect average day is possibly one of the best. Also a semi-sneaky way of working any resolution you want to stick to regularly into a broader goal.
- Gretchen Rubin is doing a Year of Happiness challenge, with a different focus every month. (She’s also written a book on happiness, which comes out… erm, today.)
Thanks for the shoutout Shura! Much appreciated and I’m glad you liked the article. :-)