Announced near the end of 2020, the Pantone Color Institute released its official Pantone Colors of 2021: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow. The Institute usually only chooses one color each year, but 2020 has been a most unusual one, to say the least.

Pantone describes this duo as “a marriage of color conveying a message of strength and hopefulness that is both enduring and uplifting.”

ARTnews.com compares the colors to “the gray of cloudy skies ... comfortable bed linens,” and “the bright yellow of lemon skin.” Could these colors also be signalling a bright new day (yellow sun) peeking out from behind gray skies? Warm sunshine and new possibilities? That’s what we’re thinking.

The two colors pair well together with the pop of bright yellow against a calming gray. Colors of the year come and go, so make sure you choose only the colors you like, of course, but the folks at Pantone really know their colors. We have some suggestions