Pantone’s Color of the Year 2024 Evokes Coziness and Comfort

Heartfelt, subtle, gentle, mellow, soft, soothing—Peach Fuzz, Pantone’s Color of the Year 2024, conjures a vibe that feels like coming home and curling up with a fuzzy blanket, mug of tea, warm fire and a Taylor Swift playlist.

Time to Show Your Softer Side

Color selection matters more than you think. It’s a powerful tool that subtly illustrates what your brand represents and what it has to offer your audience. And it’s no “pigment” of your imagination—the psychology of color can be leveraged to sway customer decisions up to 90% during first impressions.

Every year, a team of color experts at Pantone “CYANtifically” examines art, television, movies, hot travel locations, viral trends and fashion from around the world. To forecast the tone of the coming year, these color gurus dig into which colors are currently the biggest influencers and weave that knowledge together with proven color psychology.

Viva Magenta was Pantone’s in-your-face 2023 choice. With a year dominated by the cultural takeover of the Barbie movement, the bright, bold and unapologetic color hit the mark.
The Color of the Year 2024 takes a decidedly cozier and more subdued approach, eliciting a lower-key neutral warmth. While our creative team is throwing no shade at 2023’s bold vibes, we are looking forward to casting a warmer hue over 2024.

Pantone explains, “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.” We cannot agree more.

Let Your Colors Show!

Color influences customers. According to Design Wizard’s Color Theory research:

Colors alone can influence up to 90% of an initial impression.
People perceive colors differently depending on their gender and culture.
Blue is the favorite color of 35% of women and 57% of men.
Color influences 85% of shoppers’ purchase decisions.
Colors increase brand awareness by 80%.
Colors affect people’s behavior, mood and stress levels.
93% of shoppers focus on visual appearance alone when they consider a purchase.

The psychology of colorful communication can drive what your customers feel when they think of you. Blues and greens soothe and calm, yellows energize and oranges and reds can increase your heart rate (and even make you hungry!).

Color packs a punch; whether we realize it or not, it has the power to stir our feelings, spark reactions and shift mindsets. That’s why a little color coding can change the impact of your campaign. A splash of red here or a hint of green there can speak volumes without saying a word. When used skillfully, color gives communication an expressive edge, making it more dynamic and memorable.

We know when to stick to traditional brand guidelines and color palettes like glue—but have strong instincts about when to suggest a pop of color that connects with your audience to help your campaign glow and grow.

So go ahead, liven up your communications with the visual vocabulary of color. You'll be amazed by what a subtle colorful makeover could do. Will Peach Fuzz make its way into your 2024 brand story?