It's an Ultraviolet Kind of Day
December 7, 2017 2:08 PM   Subscribe

Pantone has named its color for 2018: Ultraviolet.

It is not Prince Purple (that would be Love Symbol #2), but it is has been noted that it is rather close in color to another Minnesota Purple Icon.

Other ways in which Ultraviolet has entered our cultural psyche:

Ultraviolet (1998): A BBC Miniseries about Vampires (Trailer on YouTube, episodes also seem to be available)

Ultraviolet (2006): Movie starring Mila Jovovich, which boasts a 9% tomatometer score and a fight in a library

Ultra Violet, AKA Isabelle Collin Dufresne: Author, Artist, Salvador Dali muse and Warhol Superstar

UltraViolet: an advocacy group focused on ending violence against women, promoting equal pay and reproductive rights, and supporting abuse survivors.

Ultraviolet: Song by the B52s from their album Funplex

Ultraviolet Photography: an imaging technique that supposedly reveals surface and subsurface skin conditions like hyperpigmentation and UV damage, which are generally invisible in normal lighting conditions.

Previous Pantones on Mefi: Rose Quartz and Serenity, Marsala, Radiant Orchid, and Turquoise.

Previous Pantone Colors of the Year and Colors by decade, from the "Global Authority on Color".
posted by Elly Vortex (38 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
physicists look askance, chiseled looks of despairing rage on faces
posted by hleehowon at 2:09 PM on December 7, 2017 [50 favorites]


I thought it was a post-modern joke to name a colour people can't see, but they're simply illiterates.

REPORT TO THE NEAREST TERMINATION CENTER CITIZEN Les-R-NON. YOU'RE NOT CLEARED FOR INFORMATION LEVEL ULTRAVIOLET!
posted by GuyZero at 2:17 PM on December 7, 2017 [23 favorites]


2018: That'll be a real kick and good for laughs and lashings of the old ultraviolet.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:20 PM on December 7, 2017 [10 favorites]


Also a U2 song, off Achtung Baby.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:20 PM on December 7, 2017 [6 favorites]


A E S T H E T I C
posted by cloeburner at 2:35 PM on December 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


God dammit, that's not ultraviolet!
posted by heatherlogan at 2:35 PM on December 7, 2017 [3 favorites]


I was hoping for hard X-ray myself, but maybe that's 2019.

Considering politics, I think we should all take a minute to be thankful next year's color isn't Cherenkov Blue.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:40 PM on December 7, 2017 [11 favorites]


It's Ultra Violet (not ultraviolet).
posted by Carol Anne at 2:41 PM on December 7, 2017 [7 favorites]


Does this mean blacklight posters are back in fashion?
posted by sfenders at 2:51 PM on December 7, 2017


Ultraviolent? Well, that's certainly keeping with the current zeitgeist.

Oh...

never mind
posted by Thorzdad at 2:51 PM on December 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


My favourite colour!
posted by twilightlost at 2:54 PM on December 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


The 1998 BBC series was really extraordinarily good.
posted by Slothrup at 3:01 PM on December 7, 2017


A E S T H E T I C

Vaporwave's back!
posted by GuyZero at 3:03 PM on December 7, 2017 [3 favorites]


Where it wasn't black you were inclined to wish that it was, because the colors with which some of the unspeakable details were picked out ranged horribly across the whole spectrum of eye defying colors, from Ultra Violent to Infra Dead, taking in Liver Purple, Loathsome Lilac, Matter Yellow, Burnt Hombre, and Gan Green on the way.
—Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything
posted by Iridic at 3:27 PM on December 7, 2017 [7 favorites]


Birds are expected to become a major market segment in the future, so selecting a color only they can see is a forward-looking move on Pantone's part.
posted by Pyry at 3:27 PM on December 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


I was thinking the Color of the Year would be "Blood in the Water"
posted by sjswitzer at 3:34 PM on December 7, 2017 [3 favorites]


Throwing shade to global warming?

it is has been noted that it is rather close in color to another Minnesota Purple Icon.

Just stay in your lane, Vikings.
posted by Room 641-A at 3:36 PM on December 7, 2017


Hm. Doesn't seem like the green thing they were predicting for 2017 really happened....
posted by schmod at 4:00 PM on December 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


ultraviolent and infradread
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 4:03 PM on December 7, 2017 [4 favorites]


Dark Elves and Kuo-Toa are the bold new market segment in this glorious age of our brood queen Lolth.
posted by benzenedream at 4:11 PM on December 7, 2017 [6 favorites]


Yay purple!
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:26 PM on December 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


It's Ultra Violet (not ultraviolet).
Well, then, our mistake. Perhaps the United Nations should officially announce how UN Intelligent they are.
posted by roystgnr at 5:31 PM on December 7, 2017


Alright Pantone, if colors outside the visible spectrum are allowed now we better see one of the Forbidden Colors in 2019. My vote is for stygian blue, but self-luminous red is not without it's charms.
posted by cirrostratus at 5:37 PM on December 7, 2017 [4 favorites]


Just stay in your lane, Vikings.

You know the Lakers are originally also from Minnesota, right? Didn't even bother to change the anachronistic name, just like the Jazz.
posted by traveler_ at 5:46 PM on December 7, 2017


Ultraviolet blue.
posted by ActingTheGoat at 5:59 PM on December 7, 2017


I was hoping for hard X-ray myself

Infrared: feel the heat!
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:01 PM on December 7, 2017


I LOVE IT. Change my name to ThePurpleSuperhero, stat.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:03 PM on December 7, 2017


Yay! Purple!!! My favorite color too!!!!
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 6:28 PM on December 7, 2017 [4 favorites]


There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra violets.
posted by jenkinsEar at 6:29 PM on December 7, 2017 [4 favorites]


AKA Pantone 18-3838 GrimaceTM
posted by killdevil at 7:36 PM on December 7, 2017


You know the Lakers are originally also from Minnesota, right?

Trust that when Pantone chooses light blue I will defend it, too.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:43 PM on December 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


I find the Pantone color of the year thing so interesting. It seems like the last few years have been sort of similar to each other: that lilac-y "Radiant Orchid," then the reddish-brown "Marsala," then pink-and-blue for last year and now bright purple. Not a lot of yellow, green or blue in the last few years. Do they think out a few years at a time and decide on, like, a theme? Or do they just think about the immediately upcoming year when they are deciding?
posted by aka burlap at 8:59 PM on December 7, 2017


Oh wait, never mind! I realize now that the Rose Quartz & Serenity year was 2016 and 2017 was a green.
posted by aka burlap at 9:03 PM on December 7, 2017


As an old fan of the Lakers during the Jerry West years and Kareem Jabbar years, I know that their iconic uniforms were PURPLE and gold, no matter how often Chick Hearn called the color "Forum Blue". And I see that they have just returned to purple after several color 'experiments' and I am happy.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:35 AM on December 8, 2017


Rooting for Octarine for 2019. At this point stranger things than that have quite literally happened.
posted by Grangousier at 12:45 AM on December 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


Looking forward to 'The Color Out of Space' in 2019, Pantone fhtagn!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:41 AM on December 8, 2017 [3 favorites]


I was grateful when green was the color because it meant that I could get my hands on some women's clothing in green for once (although I'd been hoping for more of a deep dark green). Maybe this means I can get something in a real shade of purple, instead of a weird reddish-purpley color that is not the true-purple-I-desire.

Past colors seem to indicate that we're due for a bright red, or a yellow soon, since it seems they try to capture the spectrum, ish. (I love color. Color is so much fun.)
posted by PearlRose at 7:52 AM on December 8, 2017


These announcements are more fun if you pronounce it “Pant One”.

“The Pant One color of the year is Tumescent Shiitake.”
posted by middleclasstool at 11:15 AM on December 8, 2017


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