Pantone Color Institute’s color of the year is ‘Greenery’

NEW YORK—Amid social, political and environmental tumult around the world, the Pantone Color Institute on Thursday plucked fresh and zesty “greenery” as the color of the year for 2017.

The vibrant green with yellow undertones is an answer, of sorts, to bruising 2016, signaling a yearning to rejuvenate, and to reconnect to both nature and something larger than oneself, said Laurie Pressman, the institute’s vice president.

The experts at the institute, which advises a variety of industries on the use of color from fashion and home design to packaging and product development, have been choosing a color of the year since 1999. It’s a way to conjure the emotions that colors evoke.

The color “greenery,” similar to chartreuse, is well represented in the first buds and grass blades of new spring, but it also plays out in history at times of major cultural shifts, including the suffrage movement and flapper era of the 1920s and the war and racial justice protest movements and psychedelia of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

On the industrial side, both Skoda and Mercedes showed bright green cars for 2017. For the kitchen, Pantone spotted its shade in appliances, including a Keurig coffeemaker, and in cookware.

And in fashion, menswear designers have played into the idea of gender fluidity through prints and accessories of bright greens, along with the creators of womenswear and beauty products, ranging from the couture of Oscar de la Renta in a leaf-embellished gown to bright green shades for eyes, nails and lips.

The shade also symbolizes the organic and health frenzy in cleaning products and food—hello matcha!—coupled with efforts to rethink food waste in restaurants and processing plants.

In the tech and digital spaces, the color pops up in products like earbuds and in logos and advertising for apps and startups, Pressman said.