LETS TALK........PANTONE COLOUR OF THE YEAR

what's all the fuss about anyway, I mean:

What or who is Pantone?

Why is there "the colour of the year"?

And who picks it?

Pantone began its life as a Commercial printing company in the 50's & through a part time employee's (Lawrence Herbert) chemistry knowledge, a simplified sytem of the companies stock of pigments & the production of inks was born.

Herbert went on to purchase thier technological assets and renamd them "Pantone".

There primamary product being the Pantone guides that are bound into a Fan deck. Were a particullar page will contain varying tints of say, blue.

Today Pantone Inc. Is a company headquatered in New Jersy. They are best known for thier Pantone Matching System(PMS). Basically it describes the way that colours can be represented and is largely a standardized color reproduction system.  A given set of names or numbers that correspond to a physical color swatch.

For eg: "PMS 130". PMS colours have even been used by the military & government legislation and are almost always used in branding:
Tiffany & co. have a private custom colour by Pantone: PMS 1837.
     
Are you still with me???

Colour of the Year:
Twice a year the company hosts a secret meeting of representatives from various nations "colour standards groups" & after 2 days of presentations & debate they choose a colour for the following year.

The visionary behind Pantones Color of the year, Leatrice Eiseman explains 2014's colour:- Saying that its a magical colour denoting creativity & inspiring confidence & innovation.

"In the world of color, purple is an attention-getter, and it has a meaning. It speaks to people, and we felt that it was time for the purple family to be celebrated. 
That's why we chose the particular shade called Radiant Orchid." 
- Leatrice Eisman.

Fashion:
We can already see it being used in the Versace Spring 2014 Collection in its more sutble hue. I do think this particular shade looks very pretty. Not sure if its my colour thought!

So there it is, What do you think? I'm not really sure about that much effort being put into a colour.  For me however Purple is my least favorite colour, I do love lavender bushes & they are of the purple family in colour. I love Hydrandeas and they can tend to look a little blue ish /Purple. So perhaps I'll use it in the garden this year after all! however I dont have it in my home and dont plan to use it. 
I have to say that the images below are absolutly stunning, it looks extremely elegant. I still cant say that I will use it in my home, however I was definatley converted into liking it. 

 Love the chair.......

 This room really works, its so prety & I like the mix of colours. I love the blue teamed with the lavender......did I just say "Love" Hmmm!!

This is really pretty

This is Suzan Kasler & I must admit its stunning, I'm slowly crossing over........ 

This is stunning -just a lttle hint of it in the table cloth

This is my take on "the Color of the year"

OK! so I must say that perhaps I dont dislike it as much as I thought, I still do not like it as a deep dark purple however as Lavender or a blue ish purple & even the silver/grey/purple is really growing on me. All of theese shades are not as bright as "Radiant Orchid" however it is definatly one of its hues and to me looks way more elegant and user freindly.
what do you think of this years colour? or perhaps youll be inspired to use it in its lighter shade as in these images.
Will you be adding it to your home decor?
LL.