Peach Fuzz is the new Pantone Color of 2024. It’s a hue that the company described in a news release as variously “gentle,” “velvety,” “contemporary” and “nurturing.” The question is whether consumers want to paint their houses peach or dress in peach. What do you think?
What Does Peach Fuzz Mean?
Each year, Pantone picks a color that we’re likely to see everywhere, but also represents a call to action for what the world needs in the coming year. Peach Fuzz is no exception. “The color is one whose warm and welcoming embrace conveys a message of compassion and whose cozy sensibility brings people together and enriches the soul,” Laurie Pressman, vice president of Pantone color institute, says.
According to Pantone’s news release, “Peach Fuzz brings belonging, inspires recalibration and an opportunity for nurturing, conjuring up an air of calm, offering us a space to be, feel and heal and to flourish, whether spending time with others or taking the time to enjoy a moment by ourselves.”
Many major paint brands have announced the colors they believe will dominate interior spaces in the coming year. But with so many paint predictions, it can be difficult to keep track of all of the colors that have been named so far—and discern them from last year’s popular shades. The trend forecast includes coastal-inspired blues like Sherwin Williams Upward and calming neutrals that are contrasted by moodier hues, such as black and olive green—a stark difference from 2023’s saturated, playful color palette.
What is Pantone?
The company is best known for its Pantone Matching System (PMS), a proprietary color space used in a variety of industries, notably graphic design, fashion design, product design, printing, and manufacturing and supporting the management of color from design to production, in physical and digital formats, among coated and uncoated materials, cotton, polyester, nylon and plastics.
Pantone began in New Jersey in the 1950s as the commercial printing company of brothers Mervin and Jesse Levine, M & J Levine Advertising. In 1956, its founders, both advertising executives, hired Lawrence Herbert as a part-time employee. Herbert used his chemistry knowledge to systematize and simplify the company’s stock of pigments and production of colored inks. Herbert eventually subsequently purchased the company’s technological assets from the Levine Brothers and renamed them “Pantone”.
The company’s primary products include the Pantone Guides, which consist of a large number of small (approximately 6×2 inches or 15×5 cm) thin cardboard or plastic sheets, printed on one side with a series of related color swatches and then bound into a small “fan deck”.
The Pantone Matching System allows designers to “color match” specific colors when a design enters production stage, regardless of the equipment used to produce the color. This system has been widely adopted by graphic designers and reproduction and printing houses.
Last Year’s Color of the Year
Pantone went bold in 2023 with Viva Magenta. The crimson hue is inspired by the red of cochineal, one of the strongest and brightest dyes in the world. “As virtual worlds become a more prominent part of our daily lives, we look to draw inspiration from nature and what is real,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute. The assertive shade encouraged us all to be braver with our home’s design choices.
