The Spring/Summer 2014 edition of Pantone View Colour Planner, titled Portal, highlights the key palettes for women's wear, menswear, active wear, cosmetics and lifestyle, as well as industrial and graphic design.
Portal speaks to a point of joining, a transitional moment where we look back to the past as well as forward toward what's to come. Fusing wisdom and the legacy of experience with curiosity and the gift of youth, as we move through the portal we become a part of another view, forming a path that leads to another world and a fresh new perspective.
Similarly, the colors on our wheel for Spring/Summer 2014 are all interconnected. As we travel through the portal we see the use of strong color continuing, becoming more grown-up, mellow and sophisticated in its level of thinking.
"Color has the power to stimulate consumer emotions and influence purchasing decisions. As today's consumer becomes increasingly color savvy, it is critical that color remains a pivotal part of any design strategy," commented Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute. "The PANTONE VIEW Colour Planner forecast not only provides fresh and unexpected color combinations needed to capture the attention of the consumer, but also the context, material and product direction for how the colors can be used."
Seven Palettes of the Pantone View Colour Planner SS2014
Natural Dimension
The Natural Dimension colors blend fossilized beiges, including bone sand, concentrated smoke grays, metallic lime and frozen ether - the colors of ruins that tell us stories from the past.
Passage
Passage highlights blue, a color most appreciated through personal perception: Blues of innocence, sadness and hope, and blues of the sky, the infinite, the everything and the nothing.
Both Sides Now
Both Sides Now draws on the past to paint a modern future with a palette immersed in rich sepia tones, antique white, lamp black and yellow ochre, blended to obscure and reveal hidden layers.
Turned on its Head
Turned on its Head reflects the passion for fantasy and augmented realities, revealing vivid pink, red and orange color exchanges to create fabulous and sometimes unsettling color blends.
Flux
Flux celebrates nature's springtime colors - blossom pinks burst forth into sky blues and lush, sappy greens with buttercup yellow casting a vivid sunbeam over this kinetic family of floral inspired pastels.
Trip Time
Trip Time is a combination of bright and intense colors inspired by moments of growth in nature and the energy exchange between light, water and heat.
Harmonic Oscillation
Harmonic Oscillation is a mosaic drawn from nature where dark blue is over-dyed with green lichen, teamed to lagoon greens, scaled to sand, as well as a hint of gray taken from the morning sky.
Portal shows a continued interest in bold colors; however, the overall feeling has evolved to be more mature and refined:
- Bright colors remain a talking point, but the use of brights is more modulated, less obvious and more harmonious than in the last two seasons.
- Pastels are split into two directions: A shaded grown-up version and a stronger, floral-scented palette, which works as a frame for brights and neutrals.
- Grays serve as skeletal bones, used across the palettes and fleshed out by other colors.
- Neutrals become colored in feeling rather than being just natural and ecru-based.
- Blue continues to suit everyone - inspired by a crystal tone to beautify, lift and energize the season.
- Metallics help lift the less colorful palettes with their reflective and light-carrying properties.
- Black has an important role as a background color for other palettes, and whites should be enjoyed naturally.
- Pink gains importance this season as an emotional and complex color with an extensive range of tonal possibilities for both men and women.