A new year is here, and new possibilities arrive with it…maybe a new website for your business is in your near future? If so, your first thought may be focused on how it would look online. If you’re brand new and want to get your business online, you may be looking for inspiration there. Perhaps we can help?
We’ve talked about the company Pantone before and their Colour of the Year for 2019, but it’s 2020 now, so naturally a new colour has been chosen. Pantone is usually the go-to colour company when it comes to deciding on colours for all sorts of industries—that includes graphic design and yes, web design too. So, let’s take a look at Pantone’s Colour of the Year for 2020, our thoughts on it, and what it all means for your business and its website.
A Brief Recap
We have already discussed Pantone and what they mean to certain industries in our previous blog post about their Colour of the Year for 2019. Last year’s colour was Living Coral, a colour that was all about “the need for authenticity and immersive experience in response to the onslaught of social media and digital technology increasingly embedded into our lives”. While this idea resonated with certain industries, the final decision on colour palettes for websites is and always has been up to business owners. Some criticism has been made by various sources; others have embraced it.
Regardless of how others view the colour choices, Pantone’s Colour of the Year has its merits and is even inspiring other companies to take notice and make their own colour of the year, which varies from brand to brand. At the end of the day, Pantone themselves are a company, but one with a little more backbone and grit to their standing. They’ve been in the colour industry for longer than the other brands, and are not going anywhere. That’s why we’re talking about them too.
And Pantone’s Colour of the Year for 2020 is:
Classic Blue. Yep, Pantone has chosen one of the most universal colours as the starting point for graphic design and web design colour trends this year. Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue is, as Pantone describes, “Instilling calm, confidence, and connection, this enduring blue hue highlights our desire for a dependable and stable foundation on which to build as we cross the threshold into a new era.”
So what does this mean for business websites? Basically, it means trustworthiness between you and your customers is going to be your biggest asset. If you’ve been around for a long enough period of time, then blue is your winning colour because it’s eye-striking to new people while also being incredibly familiar at the same time. Classic Blue is a colour that matches the night sky; it’s something that will be there, even during the most troubling times. If your brand reflects those kinds of values, then consider using Classic Blue in your website going forward.
What if I don’t like Classic Blue?
Simple: don’t use it. Like we said, Pantone is just one company and they’re not the final decision makers for your business’s brand and colours—you are. If your brand is that of more livelihood and energy, rather than calm and stable presence, then other colours such as red and yellow may be a better choice. If you’re stumped on colour options for, say, your logo and brand, why not refer to our previous blog post on the subject?
If you love the idea behind Classic Blue and want a new site design, or you’re getting started with your business and need a new site with that colour in mind, give us a call. Site development and designing them, colours and all, is our specialty among other things!