Pantone’s 2024 colour of the year is Peach Fuzz, a ‘warm and cozy’ hue that’s ‘subtly sensual’

In a countdown so highly anticipated in the design world that it’s akin to New Year’s Eve, the 2024 Pantone Colour of the Year was revealed this morning. And it is: Peach Fuzz.

The hue is described on Pantone’s Instagram account as “a velvety, gentle peach whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body and heart.” 

The “warm and cozy shade highlights our desire for togetherness with others and the feelings this creates.” They also called Peach Fuzz “subtly sensual,” “heartfelt” and “communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration.”

Those who follow the annual announcement know it’s about more than a paint shade to inspire our design choices — the colour of the year is seen by many as representing the current cultural moment.

The Pantone Color Institute has been announcing the “it” colour of the year since 2000 with its inaugural shade, Cerulean Blue — described on its website as mirroring “the colour of the sky on a crystal clear day connoting our desire for peace and relaxation as we enter the new millennium.”

Last year’s choice, Viva Magenta, is described as “a nuanced crimson red rooted in nature encouraging experimentation and self-expression without restraint.”

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Considering that 2023 was also the year people embraced maximalism, a decor trend that embraces the esthetic of excess, and our current embrace of nostalgia, which has also seen film cameras, DVDs and vinyl records stage a comeback, bold and bright magenta seemed an appropriate choice.

“We wanted to highlight to our audience how what is taking place in our global culture is expressed and reflected through the language of colour,” Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, said in an interview last year.

To decide on the colour, Pressman notes a “global team of colour experts” combs through the entertainment industry, art, fashion, all areas of design, travel destinations, lifestyles, “playstyles or enjoyable escapes” as well as socio-economic conditions to find influences.

The colour is bigger than one region or one sector of design, Pressman added.

“It is a colour we see crossing all areas of design; a colour that serves as an expression of a mood and an attitude on the part of the consumers, a colour that will resonate around the world, a colour that reflects what people are looking for, a colour that can hope to answer what they feel they need.”