The Pantone Color Institute unveiled Marsala earlier this month as the 2015 Color of the Year.
In addition to driving color trends for the fashion industry, Pantone issues the Pantone Matching System (or PMS) for ink colors used by marketers and graphic designers worldwide.
PMS numbers allow for consistency across mediums and by different vendors so long as the true PMS color is “poured.” PMS color inks actually come in cans like you get at Home Depot to paint your house and so the numbering system allows for this level of control.
In the “I need everything fast and in a hurry” digital age, much of today’s printing is converted from PMS colors to CMYK builds which are close but never a perfect spot on match. Online, those PMS colors are converted to RGB where as you may have experienced, no two monitors are alike.
That is precisely why persnickety marketing professionals advocate the use of PMS colors, especially when it comes to maintaining the integrity of your brand.
Despite the thousands of PMS colors available, a great many businesses large and small still to gravitate towards blues near PMS 280 or consistently try to emulate Coke Red (which is not in fact a PMS color you can order but is instead a unique and patented color all itself).
I look forward to a year of seeing things in PMS 7523 (Marsala) which to me looks a little like pomegranate and would be a flattering color for lipstick or nail polish.