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The color of the year is a "corporate" shade

Dec 26, 2019
Pantone has given its color of the year, "Classic Blue," its own soundtrack, tea and gin cocktail.
Pantone's Color of the Year for 2020 is classic blue.
Courtesy of Pantone

How William Perkin’s search for a malaria cure led to the color mauve

Mar 12, 2018
A teenager tinkering in his lab invented a brilliant synthetic shade of purple in Victorian England.
The original mauve — similar to the shade depicted in this image — was much brighter than the color we know today.
William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

The darkest building on the planet is at the Olympics

The structure in Pyeongchang is painted with what its maker says is the darkest man-made substance, a material that absorbs 99 percent of light.
The Hyundai Pavilion at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, designed by Asif Khan, is coated with Vantablack VBx2.
Luke Hayes

When our social ills were solved with a little pink

Dec 26, 2017
In 1979, a psychologist presented a potential solution to rising crime levels. It became a phenomenon.
View of the holding cell 14 November 2006 of the newly painted Dallas County jail in Buffalo, Missouri, with the color scheme of pink with blue teddy bear accents. The Dallas County Detention Center is being repainted a soft shade of pink in an effort to better manage sometimes volatile detainees.
JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images

We all used to hate the color green

Dec 22, 2017
Now we associate it with environmentalism, but in the medieval period, it was seen as an "unnatural" shade.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

When the Big Apple nearly became the Big Orange

Nov 24, 2017
At one time, there wasn't even a separate word to describe "orange." But the arrival of a citrusy fruit to Europe created a branding opportunity for one ruling family.
A model poses during New York Fashion Week on February 10, 2017 in New York City. 
Noam Galai/Getty Images for New York Fashion Week

Worldwide art glass suppliers suspend certain colors

Mar 30, 2016
Companies stopped making some colors after environmental tests found heavy metals.
Bullseye Glass is known for products that fuse together reliably, and for its rainbow of colors.  But now, fewer colors are available.
April Baer

For public good, not for profit.

The woman behind the Pantone color of the year

Dec 3, 2015
Her mom would paint the inside of their home in Baltimore a new shade every spring, even the piano.

From revolting to revolt: Why is my office this color?

Dec 30, 2013
We're past the era when color trends were dictated, and “everyone marched to the same drummer.”