~The Metaverse~ inspired Pantone’s 2022 Color of the Year
Plus: Kehinde Wiley makes clothes now too
Hello, in this week’s issue we’ll look at…
~The Metaverse~ inspired Pantone’s 2022 Color of the Year
Kehinde Wiley makes clothes now too
These sculptures of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor will raise money for their foundations
Here’s some of your hometown logos from across the country
~The Metaverse~ inspired Pantone’s 2022 Color of the Year
Pantone announced their 2022 Color of the Year on Thursday, and for the first time in their history, they put out a new shade for the occasion.
Very Peri is a periwinkle blue blended with violet red undertones that’s inspired by the merging of our physical and digital lives, Pantone said. The shade, 17-3938 in their catalog, was introduced for our “transformative times.”
“As we move into a world of unprecedented change, the selection of PANTONE 17-3938 Very Peri brings a novel perspective and vision of the trusted and beloved blue color family,” Pantone Color Institute executive director Leatrice Eiseman said in a statement. “Creating a new color for the first time… reflects the global innovation and transformation taking place.”
Pantone determines its annual color based on trend analysis across entertainment, art, fashion, design, and technology. For Very Peri, they specifically mentioned gaming and ~the metaverse~ as inspiration, which makes sense, since the color seems like the rough average of every color in Ariana Grande’s virtual Fortnite Rift Tour.
For Very Peri’s launch, Pantone partnered with brands including Brazilian shoe brand Cariuma, which put out a Very Peri canvas sneaker, and Microsoft, which is using Very Peri in products like wallpapers and a PowerPoint template. My favorite uses of the color are the runway looks rounded up by Vogue, including the Gucci Spring 2022 dress Lady Gaga wore to the red carpet for the U.K. premiere of “House of Gucci.”
From a current events standpoint, Pantone has nailed Color of the Year the past two years. For 2021, they selected two colors, Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow, meant to symbolize both optimism and challenges, which basically sums up this year, and for 2020 they chose Classic Blue, which… *points to the 2020 election map*
I guess I’ll see you in the Metaverse in 2022, then!
*puts on headset*
*selects Lady Gaga’s Very Peri Gucci dress for my avatar*
*blasts off into the unknown*
Kehinde Wiley makes clothes now too
If you ever felt the urge to wrap yourself in a Kehinde Wiley, now’s your chance.
The artist, known for his official portrait of former President Barack Obama, is out with a merch line that includes a notecard set, playing cards, and a limited-edition $25,000 print. The best items, though, are wearable, including hoodies, shirts, and a puffer coat that feature Wiley’s portraits and signature floral prints. My favorite item is the $150 Death of St. Joseph basketball, which shows detail of an open palm from Wiley’s 2017 painting of the same name.
The limited-edition collection is Wiley’s first, and the net proceeds benefit Black Rock Senegal, the artist-in-residence program in Dakar, Senegal, he founded in 2019.
In other Obama portraitist news, Amy Sherald dressed in Thom Browne alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Lee Pace, and others for GQ’s feature on the fashion designer. “If I was walking down the street and I saw somebody who was wearing Thom Browne, automatically I would feel a kinship,” she said.
These sculptures of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor will raise money for their foundations
Sculptures of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by sculptor Chris Carnabuci are up for auction, with a portion of the proceeds going to We Are Floyd and the Breonna Taylor Foundation.
Carnabuci’s sculptures are made from cut and stacked plywood. His six-foot-tall Floyd statue was made from more than 200 layers and displayed earlier this year in New York City as part of the pop-up exhibition SeeinJustice. The sculpture was vandalized twice while it was on display, and it’s since been restored.
The Taylor sculpture features artwork from artist Láolú Senbanjo, whose work draws on Yoruba designs from Nigeria. You might recognize the style from Beyoncé’s 2016 “Sorry” music video, which he worked on. The auction goes through Friday at Sotheby’s.
“We are still very much fighting for justice for Breonna,” Taylor’s mother Tamika Palmer said in a statement. “This project not only captures Breonna’s spirit, it is a monument standing for a call to justice for her, and the others who have suffered the same fate, and a beautiful way honor her life.”
Here’s some of your hometown logos from across the country
Before Thanksgiving I wrote about the drama in my hometown of Gilbert, Ariz., over the new town logo and asked what your hometown logos look like.
Dan from Mahomet, Ill., wrote that he’s not a huge fan of the ‘M’ logo from his town, “but apparently they are because they use it for everything,” including the area chamber of commerce, an annual race, and the Mahomet Music Festival.
Sarah from Noblesville, Ind., sent over her hometown’s old and new logos. The city’s rebrand cost $20,000 and “everyone hates it,” she said. The old logo “contains our courthouse, which nobody knew about before but everyone seems to love now” lol.
Elizabeth from Rome, Ga., showed off the rebrand for Rome’s downtown district from her friend Ellie Borromeo. “Going to brag on a friend of mine who rebranded our hometown a little over a year ago,” Elizabeth wrote. “Not hard to see the major upgrade there, lol.”
I loved seeing where everyone was from, and if you have other hometown logos, I’d love to see them!
Can we stop doing this now?
Why are magazines so obsessed with shooting Elon Musk against a dark background to depict him as a singular, visionary genius?!
IMO, TIME should have given Person of the Year this year to the officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, the scientists who developed the COVID vaccine, or Britney Spears and her Army.
I will not be taking questions at this time, thank you.