The new year is almost here, and it’s time to make some resolutions. Remember to write 2008 on your checks, and…add Blue Iris to your design projects?!

Blue Iris is the color of 2008 according to the gurus at Pantone. This shade of blue-purple, also known as PANTONE 18-3943, was chosen for its calming and somewhat mystical properties.

Wave goodbye to last year’s Chili Pepper. Blue Iris is the color of 2008.

Compared to last year’s vibrant Chili Pepper, Blue Iris is calm, but it’s still very bold and complex, with lots of good combinatorial possibilities. Leatrice Eiseman of Pantone suggests combining it with “deeper plums, red-browns, yellow-greens, grapes, and grays.”

The folks at Pantone believe Blue Iris will figure prominently in fashion and home trends, but I wonder how it could be folded into a print or website design. Last year’s red was a no-brainer for designers, who often use red to grab attention. However, the applications of this year’s bluish-purple are not so obvious. Purples aren’t often included in print or web designs, usually because they are overtly feminine. Purples also have fewer specific psychological associations than do reds, yellows, greens, or blues.

Blue Iris doesn’t have these problems, because there’s enough blue in the mix that viewers can make sense of the color within a larger design message. Plugging the color into Illustrator’s handy Live Color tool produces some really interesting harmonies that might just add a fresh new twist to your next design project.

Pairing blue-purples with olives makes for a rich, luxurious-looking harmony.

Pantone’s color of the year program may seem like nothing more than a marketing ploy to many, but anything that introduces a new palette can’t be a bad thing, right?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Design, Graphic Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.