Green is Good, but Emerald, Really?

Oh my, what year is this? Have we entered some kind of time machine?

Perhaps it's the revival of 1950s Dorothy Draper designs that helped clinch the vote? Or maybe it's some kind of nostalgia for swinging fern bars of 1970s?

Whatever the reason, Emerald seems an odd choice to be named the new and inspirational color of the year. Come on Pantone can't you be a little more cutting edge?

Overlooking the strange choice of color, it seems Emerald is a hard color to define when it's not on a cocktail ring. Even the home page for Pantone looks unconvinced. It features 9 beautiful crisp lay-outs of various shades of green, many of which do not include Emerald.

A "lively, radiant and lush" green evokes for me a deep, dark and rich forest green, maybe with some variegation. But Emerald just doesn't work like that.

So how and why was it selected? Maybe it's not intended to be a stand alone color and works best when it's part of a mix, like a salad of baby greens? Or maybe we are entering the Land of Oz?

In 2013, I hope we can find our well-being, balance and harmony with a happier, smarter color of green.

For cool Pantone products and color systems, see pantone.com