With its pick of two colours of the year for 2021, Pantone has tried to both reflect the depressing past year and predict hope for 2021, says Michelle Ogundehin.

The tricky thing with a colour of the year is to determine whether it is intended to be a prediction of what is needed for the year ahead, or if it stands as a sort of anticipatory reflection of what already exists.
Clearly, it's easier to conjure the latter as you have a fairly solid basis for speculation, the year past. Plus, most major colour companies annually scour the globe for psychosocial clues or gather together a merry band of international trend forecasters and pick their brains, all for intimations of where the winds of change may collectively take us. But throw in the fact that this process often starts at least two years in advance of the year in question and the potential to get it all horribly wrong is laid bare. In other words, most major brands would start work on 2021 predictions in Q3 of 2019, with the results are announced as work concludes on 2022 ? it's about allowing time for preparation of the requisite PR collateral as well as actual manufacture of any supporting product.
The potential to get it all horribly wrong is laid bare
Thus, while musing on 2020 at the end of 2018, I'd wager there were few pollsters wondering which precise shade of puce might best represent the possibility of a global pandemic! Dulux ultimately gave us Tranquil Dawn, a pale greyish green, the US paint giant Behr ...