12.15.16
Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand | Audio

Episode 47: True Colors


For 2016, Pantone chose Rose Quartz and Serenity as its colors of the year to evoke a “soothing sense of order and peace.” In fact, the year had harsher hues: the red of Make America Great Again hats, Trump orange, and purple for Prince’s death and Hillary Clinton’s concession.

Will 2017 be a year of Greenery, “symbolic of new beginnings”?

Also mentioned:

The Forward, Why Time’s Trump Cover Is a Subversive Work of Political Art
New York Times and Fast Company on Samsung v. Apple
Wired, How Arrival’s Designers Crafted a Mesmerizing Alien Alphabet
Drew Magary, The 2016 Hater’s Guide To The Williams-Sonoma Catalog
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Seinfeldia

Subscribe to The Observatory on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Soundcloud.            


Posted in: Arts + Culture, The Observatory




Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

Jobs | October 04