Did you know Tangerine Tango is “the” color for 2012? The leading authority on color in design, the Pantone Color Institute (R) announced the Tangerine Tango as the official color of 2012. A moment of remembrance for 18-2120 Honeysuckle Pink (Pantone’s 2011 color of the year). Fashion and consumer products are being produced en masse in rich reddish orange hue. There’s already a List of Top Ten Tangerine Tango Products.
Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute® describes the color as,“Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”
In our work creating brands, advertising, packaging and websites color combinations are an essential part of cultivating depth, feel and messaging for projects.
I encourage you to watch consumer products, fashion and digital media as the color becomes more popular this year. Also take some time to see if it’s a color that could help your brand. Is it time for a change?
Top Ten Tangerine Tango Products
Once a month I have a ritual of analyzing our site. I launch Safari and manually type in the URL to our website, ignoring cached quick click launches and punctuate it with a push of the return button. I visit our site like a new visitor that found the link on a business card. I take note of where I look. What I see that frustrates me. I think about how the site makes me feel. Does it seem organized, updated. I take it all in. I do the same from the iPad and iPhone. I want to know every angle of how the company is being seen. I was pleased recently to see that Tango Tangerine (or a variation thereof) has been a part of our color scheme since 2007, long before Pantone’s coronation.
As we design sites and help clients build their logos from ideas and back of envelope sketches to effective brands, color is a common discussion. Usually we get two colors. Often conflicting colors or combinations that have sentimental purpose to the client. We respect that and encourage flexibility to options and variations. When two colors are picked it often needs a third “pop” color. Black and Tangerine Tango alone created what I call a Halloween effect. We revised our color scheme, added some green and we loved the results. Color is a very personal point of preference but there are also some general rules demystifying color that our Senior Creative Director kindly reminds and educates me about.
Take some time to visit your website and only look at the colors. What do they convey? What year do the colors on your site look like they are from? Does the color selection of your logo and site have any latitude to change or freshen up?
I’m not a fan of changing for change ‘s sake. Nor would I recommend that a drop of Tangerine Tango in your brand, website or blog will unlock untold dollars. If you haven’t paid attention to color trends you are using in your brand and how it supports or degrades your bullet points on innovation in your best PowerPoint, you should. Remember Salmon and Wedgewood?
What do you think about Tangerine Tango? How does color impact your marketing and branding? Leave a comment below.
