December 3, 2022

"It almost feels like the millennial pink of yesteryear run through an algorithm to make it feel 'post-pandemic' — that kind of Roaring Twenties redux...."

"... I will say the idea of wearing this shade of pink appeals more to me right now than wearing muted pink — say, millennial pink."/"Pantone identifies it as a 'hybrid color,' or 'a carmine red that does not boldly dominate but instead takes a "fist in a velvet glove" approach.' They also say it 'welcomes anyone and everyone.' But it’s interesting that most of us think of it as closer to pink than red."/"Pink is a fact of life, and it does feel that the brash maximalism of Ms. 18-1750 suits our current moment much better than a more restrained cotton candy or carnation shade."

From "Pantone’s Color of the Year Was Made for the Metaverse/Say hello to Viva Magenta, the color no one asked for, coming to a world where no one lives" (NYT).

Here's the 18-1750 swatch (which looks pretty red to me):

29 comments:

mccullough said...

Soft red not as pretentious as Viva Magenta

Joe Smith said...

I can see it being pink.

Nothing better than a fresh Pantone swatch book : )

Baceseras said...

I looked at that picture and my first thought was, "Magenta's sister, the quiet one." Then I went to DDG to cop a refresher look at Magenta herself, and lo! Viva Magenta (so named) is Pantone's color for 2023. [link]

Baceseras said...

On chimerical colors

Butkus51 said...

I had my money on coy cyan.

Theres always next year as I'm a Cub fan.

Baceseras said...

Gardeners sometimes call Magenta the "Garden-of-Eden color" because hybrid reds of every shade or tint, if they're allowed to go to seed, sooner or later revert back to Magenta.

(This is not theological. Whomever coined the phrase was just more used to saying "Garden of Eden" than "primeval.")

Danno said...

It also looks pretty red to me but seems to change slightly magenta-ish? the longer you look at it.

And on second thought, why do we care what the elitist color snobs at Pantone are saying?

Kate said...

Even Miranda Priestly would call that red.

Balfegor said...

Looks a bit like vermillion/cinnabar, but honestly the old reds often seem a little pink/orange to me, who grew up with synthetic reds and glowing red diodes.

cf said...

i like it just fine.

it carbonates my circulation.

just a hit of it works great.


M said...

That is the same magenta color your grandmother and great grandmother wore as polyester tops and jogging suits. This is not new. This is just the corporations trying to sell you something you don’t need by rebranding your grandma’s colors as “hip and now”.

Whiskeybum said...

Pink, it was love at first sight
Pink, when I turn out the light
Pink, it's like red but not quite
...


"Pink" by Aerosmith

Whiskeybum said...

Also keep in mind that if your monitor is not extremely well calibrated, you are not seeing the exact color that is represented by the 'true' swatch.

gilbar said...

so is viva magenta, the new orange?

Narr said...

I know pink. My wife is pink (mostly). That ain't pink.

MadisonMan said...

@M, my grandmother did not wear polyester.

Bunkypotatohead said...

You could have looked fetching in that color had you worn it to the EU gala party for ‘global gateway’ metaverse.
At least to the six people who showed up.

Fred Drinkwater said...

I spent years at Adobe worrying about color presentation on video displays and on printed paper. There's no way to tell what that swatch looks like on anybody's monitor. Most monitors are very poorly calibrated, if at all.
Also: there's no such thing as white paper. Someday I need to work that into an essay on the fantasy nature of "white" supremacy.

n.n said...

From petty in pink to blood red. Apropos.

Joe Smith said...

@Fred...

Don't even get me started on CMYK printing : )

stunned said...

Viva Magenta and Joy to the World!

PM said...

Almost as awaited, I believe, as Punxsutawney Phil.

loudogblog said...

As a person with a degree in lighting design I can definitely tell you that is not a "magenta."

https://www.filmandvideolighting.com/roro46magelf.html

Old and slow said...

It's all been said already. CMYK, RGB, magenta, yeah. I like the color myself.

As this blog comment section has become too familiar, I feel like there is little new to read and less and less reason to bother reading (apart from a few).

M said...

MadisonMan said...
@M, my grandmother did not wear polyester.


Is that because you are so old that it wasn’t an option or because your family was so wealthy she only wore bespoke silk, linen and lawn?

I’m from Florida. All the old ladies wore some artificial fabric “shell” tops in bright colors when I was a kid. The bizarre thing is that came back, even tackier, for young women in the 2010s.

Almost all women’s clothes are made of some artificial fiber these days and have been for 60 years. Polyester, rayon, or whatever new name they’ve come up to make you forget they are made in a lab, regardless they are all artificial fibers. I can’t stand to wear artificial fibers and have a heck of a time finding silk, linen or cotton dress clothes without a poly liner. Even from high end designers.

effinayright said...

Eastman Kodak had all sorts of copyright protection for its distinctive yellow packaging, right down to the wavelengths of the dyes used to coat the paper to the reflected light.

Old timers at the company didn't refer to it as "Mother Yellow" for nothing.

So if you thought of selling knock-off photo stuff using that color, you would find yourself being asked the question "Groundskeeper Willie" posed on "The Simpsons":

"Good God, man, do ya want to be suuuuuedd?!!"

mikee said...

I've used a color called Subtle Touch on the bedroom walls of every home I've built, just for the joy of telling the new homeowner the paint name. And Caviar for the exterior trim, because hey, "fish eggs" sounds like a lousy color for gutters and fascia.

I grew up with avocado green shag carpets, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners. And a bathroom that was purest yellow, and another that was blue (well, more aquamarine) including the toilets and tubs. What I learned was to close my eyes when I turned on the bathroom lights in the morning, lest I be blinded by the colors.

stlcdr said...

When I read ‘pink’ (throughout the text) the corner of my eye sees a shade of deep pink. When Althouse talks of red, I see an off-red. Weird how the mind works.

Alison said...

That is not pink.