12 Days of JOURNOS, Day Eight: The Color Conspiracy of 2022

On the Eighth Day of JOURNOS, we unpack Brandon's first conspiracy: the secret marketing machinations that produce the Color of the Year. This year, a hitch: most of the colors were basically the same riff on greenish-gray. With this crack in the facade, Stephen & Brandon discuss the terrible power of the true palette-masters over at the Pantone Color Institute, which exercises considerable sway over the design and marketing choices of all sorts of brands.

Pantone's Color of the Year? A sick purp called "Very Peri!" Pantone's choice, as well as all those near-identical green-grays, was inspired this year by the psychological effects of a single ongoing event: the pandemic. The colors are meant to soothe and to inspire creativity (and per Brandon, to continue to exercise control over our built reality).

All this talk of the pandemic and mood got us thinking about a New York Times piece on the "boring pandemic" and the "mood of 2021." So we decide to kick off the year by announcing our own JOURNOS Color of 2022. 

Listen and learn, but don't doubt: It's the perfect shade for your tinfoil hat.