Pantone Is Clearly An Undercover ARMY, And We Have The Receipts
For any graphic designer or someone who likes to stay on the latest trends, something we all look forward to every year is the reveal of Pantone Color of the Year.
Based in New Jersey, Pantone LLC is a limited liability company. Most know Pantone for the Pantone Matching System (PMS), “a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic design, fashion design, product design, printing and manufacturing and supporting the management of color from design to production, in physical and digital formats, among coated and uncoated materials, cotton, polyester, nylon, and plastics.”
Ever since 2000, Pantone Color Institute has declared a “Color the Year” annually. After top-secret meetings with nations’ representatives of color standards groups, this color is determined, making them the color authority. According to CNN Underscored, “The color purportedly connects with the zeitgeist,” meaning it’s always in touch with the times and what’s on trend.
That couldn’t be more clearly evident in the Color of the Year for 2022.
Pantone just revealed that the Pantone Color of the Year for 2022 is “PANTONE 17-3938,” known as “Very Peri.” It’s an original color, the first time that the Color of the Year is not pre-existing. It’s meant to reflect on how our world has transformed since COVID-19.
The Pantone color of the year reflects what is taking place in our global culture, expressing what people are looking for that color can hope to answer… Creating a new color for the first time in the history of our Pantone color of the year educational color program reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place.
— Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute
Pantone describes Very Peri as “a dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet red undertone blends the faithfulness and constancy of blue with the energy and excitement of red.” The company released an excitement reveal of the new color in a video on social media.
Introducing the Pantone Color of the Year 2022, PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri, a dynamic periwinkle blue hue with a vivifying violet red undertone blends the faithfulness and constancy of blue with the energy and excitement of red. Learn more: https://t.co/eNIwkTq2K8 pic.twitter.com/hBfiDusFKU
— PANTONE (@pantone) December 9, 2021
While the new color seems like a unique nod to the changes in our global culture, to others, it just looks like Pantone is catching up with the rest of us. There’s no denying that the color is quite attractive. Despite being original, it feels familiar…
ARMYs (fans of BTS) couldn’t help but be reminded of BTS after the color reveal. Even the video with purple bubbles floating around seemed reminiscent of BTS’s purple balloons from the “Permission to Dance” MV, which had the same message as Pantone. BTS’s “Permission to Dance” also communicated the beginning of a new era, following COVID-19.
“PURPLE balloons signal the end of covid-19.
2022 the beginning of a new era.”Reminds me @BTS_twt Permission To Dance MV. 💜 pic.twitter.com/3SqFP78Msj
— kim army⁷ (@ms_kimarmy) December 9, 2021
— ⟭⟬Nabi⁷⟬⟭ˢᵘᵍᵃ🌌 (@nabiya0693) December 9, 2021
Naturally, ARMYs are referring to the Pantone Color of the Year 2022 as “the borahaefication of 2022.”
the borahaefication of 2022 https://t.co/7b1TF3DDB5
— Super Tuna Intl. (@780613) December 9, 2021
For those unfamiliar, borahae is a Korean phrase, combining the words for “purple” and “I love you.” Alternatively, ARMYs may say, “I purple you.”
BTS’s V created this expression and introduced it during the group’s 3rd Muster, a fan club event, in November 2016.
Do you know what purple means? Purple is the last color of the rainbow. Purple means I will trust and love you for a long time.
— V
Since then, purple has become BTS’s official color. We associate it with the group all of the time now.
We send purple heart emojis, making it one of the most popular emojis on social media. While others may use it, most of its usage comes from BTS and ARMY. Associated words used with the purple emoji include “BTS,” “Bangtan,” “Army,” “btsarmy,” and, of course, members’ names, such as “Jungkook, “Taehyung,” “Jimin,” “Yoongi,” “Jin,” “Hobi,” and “Namjoon.”
BTS’s merchandise and collaborations also almost always use purple. For example, the Samsung Galaxy S20+ BTS Edition contains a purple hue.
Likewise, McDonald’s and BTS’s collaboration for The BTS Meal included purple packaging. The themed merchandise also contained purple accents.
So, we definitely can’t help but see a connection between Pantone’s Color of the Year and the fact that BTS is the biggest music act in the world.
BTS ARMY COLOR pic.twitter.com/dMoZBPtNHZ
— 🎄⛄보라해 ⛄🎄 (@borahae_twt_) December 9, 2021
2022 Bangtan year has begun pic.twitter.com/0i2MJjroDS
— yessi ⁷ (@bestofyessi) December 9, 2021
This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve noticed some connections between Pantone’s choice for Color of the Year and BTS… Each time that BTS has released a new album, the designs reflected the respective Color of the Year.
mmhm i can already predict whats gna happen next pic.twitter.com/agSBlGjP3h
— lex⁷ 🐟 (@prodK0YA) December 9, 2021
— lachimolala 🇲🇽 (@lachimolalarmy_) December 9, 2021
We’re definitely suspecting that whoever is in charge at Pantone is really an undercover ARMY. Seriously, you can’t tell me their Twitter doesn’t currently look like a BTS fan account.
Either way, we’re definitely taking this all to mean that Pantone is confirming that 2022 is preparing to be BTS’s year!
what I get from here is that 2022 is going to be bts year
— cat⁷ (@catkkyu) December 9, 2021
