ULTRA VIOLET: PANTONE'S 2018 COLOUR OF THE YEAR
post-truth
ADJECTIVE
Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.
‘in this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire’
‘some commentators have observed that we are living in a post-truth age’
In 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary added the word post-truth to its large book of definitions as the word of the year.
In 2017 the "secret council of colour experts" announced that the colour of the year was a glorious shade of green called "Greenery" (click here to read all about our thoughts on that, plus the history of how Pantone chooses its colour of the year).
After a status-quo challenging American Presidential election, the colour that represents new growth and new beginnings set an interesting tone for a year wrought with scandals and heartache.
2017 was also a year of tremendous progress, and, well, growth.
With the advent of the internet came a level of access to information never before seen in the history of our species. And with great access, comes great responsibility.
We are inundated with content every waking moment of our day. We spend a ridiculous amount of time on the internet, and of that time we are spending a larger and larger percentage of it on social media sites. Sites powered by the opinions and output of people just like us. Opinions and output that haven't necessarily been well researched, fact-checked, or otherwise audited for its truth value.
Are you a headline reader? Or, do you click on articles that provoke/interest you, and read through from beginning to end?
In both cases we are unconsciously affected by this steady stream of text, images and videos, whether we fully engage with it or not. A glimpse of a headline can reemerge in a conversation when we least expect it, and we'll find ourself wracking our brains for what the point of it was, and whether it was grounded in fact or a facetious look at the topic.
In this post-truth world it's important to make an effort towards digging up the truth.
Enter: Ultra Violet.
“The Pantone Color of the Year has come to mean so much more than ‘what’s trending’ in the world of design; it’s truly a reflection of what’s needed in our world today.”
In 2018, let the mantis shrimp be your Ultra Violet spirit animal.
The mantis shrimp can see what we cannot: the ultra violet spectrum (a fact that we find totally amazing!). This is the spectrum beyond our regular colour spectrum. A spectrum that is always there, but unseeable by us non-mantis-shrimp Earth-walkers.
Violet is the colour of the 7th chakra, located at the crown of our head, above our third eye. Our third eye looks up to our crown chakra, the spiritual centre of the body. It's through this place within ourselves that we access Universal Truth, higher meaning, our intuition.
How do you navigate a post-truth world if you're not using your ultraviolet vision to see deeper?
Imagine your third eye glowing with violet, crown chakra energy. Ground yourself in this place when navigating the line between fact and fiction. Use your ultra violet third eye vision to see past your personal biases, your conditioning, your limiting beliefs.
Give it a try right now, and take a moment to sit in silence and meditate on the colour violet.
“Inventive and imaginative, Ultra Violet lights the way to what is yet to come.”
A new wave of mindfulness has been steadily gaining steam and we predict 2018 to be a year where meditation and mindfulness apps, businesses, products and services become mainstream - something that we think can bring nothing but positive results - on both the personal and societal level - when used correctly.
This shift in the collective consciousness towards acceptance, understanding and open communication of our struggles and mental health issues is a step in the direction of World Peace and Universal Acceptance.
So we want to know: what do you think of Ultra Violet? How do you interpret this colour selection for 2018?
