2021 Color Palette Inspiration

It’s always exciting when Pantone releases their color of the year, and this year was no exception. I have to be honest though, I was kind of surprised by their choice of Illuminating Yellow paired with Ultimate Gray. While I did appreciate the sentiment behind it, I’m not really a yellow person—especially not a super bright yellow. It didn’t feel as rich as past choices, and I felt that the yellow/gray combo didn’t provide enough depth and contrast.

However, I decided to give it a chance and challenged myself to put together a color palette with Illumating Yellow. Maybe pairing it with other colors would change my mind? Plus, it’s always a good exercise to choose colours out of my comfort zone. In the end, it worked and I actually really like how this palette turned out.

Of course to be fair, I didn’t use Pantone’s Ultimate Gray, but instead a darker gray. So maybe I cheated a bit. Ha!

I also had a look at the 2021 winter and spring palettes that Pantone released and put together a few more for inspiration. I think we’ll continue to see a combination of bright colors and unexpected color palettes. I’m loving Pantone’s Burnt Henna, Aquamarine Green, Burnt Coral and Polar Night.

What do you think? What colors are you most excited to incorporate into your colour palettes?