Get with the Purple
Get with the Purple
08.12.17
Well, something has become plainly evident. We don’t do purple.
When Pantone announced ‘Ultra Violet’ as their Pantone Colour of 2018 yesterday, we collectively started trawling round for evidence of how successfully we have used purple recently. And, erm…we haven’t.
We had all been predicting a tone of blue, maybe petrol, possibly brightening into a deep turquoise. Or a regal navy, rich and luxy. Recent Pantone years have seen Greenery, Rose Quartz and Serenity, Marsala and Radiant Orchid. Dulux announces their colours of each year too, choosing tonally more muted with colours like Denim Drift, Cherished Gold and Copper Blush. Altogether more useable colours for the interiors side of things. But even Dulux have hit a purple note this year with their 2018 Heartwood so we really should have seen it coming.
Will we start throwing purple at everything now? Nope. As with all ‘trends’, we advocate the less-is-more tactic, adopting the proceed-with-caution approach. Purple is a beautiful colour, and can be used to great effect. Douse a whole room in it, add it to a muted grey palette or throw it in with some other bright and powerful tones. As with all colours there are many and varied ways of using it. Some of my favourite combinations fling accents of purple against citrus yellows, or hot pinks. Bring it in line with gorgeous cerulean or petrol blues and add an off-note of red to play with it. Maybe keep it moody with dusty greys and charcoals, or add a metallic note of copper or brass. Or just throw the purple kitchen sink at it and use it on everything.
I’ve retitled my ‘purple’ Pinterest board to make it look like I knew all along, and now I’m being inspired by the pure purpleness of it.
It is a great colour, it can work as a foil for other colours. It can add a deep, rich tone or it can stand alone to create mood. So you may see a little creeping into a couple of our schemes. We might colour our hair purple. Or our macarons.
Or we may be too busy trying to second guess what they are going to come up with for 2019 so we can look a bit more savvy by pre-empting it a little more effectively next time.
Rebecca
