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Pantone®  has chosen Mocha Mousse (17-1230) for the colour of the year for 2025. This shade is a natural and earthy tone, and according to the Pantone® website, it is a "comfort" colour. Each year, the company launch a colour to influence choices in industries such as design, interiors, fashion, and more. I am not sure if they missed the mark this year with a "dated" beige colour, but they have introduced a few colour schemes with this colour.

Pantone® helps set colour trends, so expect to see the colour used in fashion, interior design, home furnishings, graphic design, and artwork over the next year. The past few years of Pantone® 'colours of the year' are listed below.

2024: Peach Fuzz
2023: Viva Magenta
2022: Very Peri
2021: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating
2020: Classic Blue
2019: Living Coral
2018: Ultra-Violet
2017: Greenery
2016: Serenity & Rose Quartz
2015: Marsala
2014: Radiant Orchid
2013: Emerald
2012: Tangerine Tango
2011: Honeysuckle

The colour of the year for 2024 that Pantone has chosen is Peach Fuzz 13-1023. This is a pale pastel peachy orange shade. The colour is expected to be popular in fashion, interior design, and other applications in the design field. According to the Pantone website, it is an uplifting and calming colour. It helps to enrich the mind and soul, and it is a peaceful colour. I am looking forward to seeing this colour used as it is one of my favourite colours, and the colour suits me when I wear it. 

Pantone® helps set colour trends, so expect to see the colour used in fashion, interior design, home furnishings, graphic design, and artwork over the next year. The past few years of Pantone® 'colours of the year' are listed below.

2023: Viva Magenta
2022: Very Peri
2021: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating
2020: Classic Blue
2019: Living Coral
2018: Ultra-Violet
2017: Greenery
2016: Serenity & Rose Quartz
2015: Marsala
2014: Radiant Orchid
2013: Emerald
2012: Tangerine Tango
2011: Honeysuckle

1) Pantone®. https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year/2024 [1 January, 2024].

The colour that Pantone has chosen to represent 2023 is Viva Magenta 18-1750, a purple-red shade. According to Pantone's website, the shade is a new signal of strength, brave, and celebrative. It is a powerful colour and can have multiple applications. Viva Magenta is a natural colour with a bright shade, and it can be paired with muted greens and creams as secondary colours.

Pantone® helps set colour trends, so expect to see the colour used in fashion, interior design, home furnishings, graphic design, and artwork over the next year. The past few years of Pantone® 'colours of the year' are listed below.

2022: Very Peri
2021: Ultimate Gray and Illuminating
2020: Classic Blue
2019: Living Coral
2018: Ultra-Violet
2017: Greenery
2016: Serenity & Rose Quartz
2015: Marsala
2014: Radiant Orchid
2013: Emerald
2012: Tangerine Tango
2011: Honeysuckle

1) Pantone®. https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year/2023 [1 January, 2023].

Last year's Pantone® "colour of the year" was "Classic Blue" (PANTONE 19-4052), which promised stability, comfort, and dependability. How wrong that was for 2020, although we did not realise at the time what would unfold. For 2021, there are a combination of two colours: a medium gray shade and a pale yellow shade (17-5104 Ultimate Gray and 13-0647 Illuminating). These are two colours used frequently at the moment, but they may be behind the curve slightly as they have been a common pallete for a few years now. The gray is a solid colour, and the pale yellow is a positive and uplifting colour.

The combination hopes to bring about happiness and positivity as well as to provide a sense of hope. These shades offer a colour combination that Pantone® believe will be used throughout the year in fashion, the arts, and design.

Pantone® helps to set the colour trends. Expect to see this colour used in the world of fashion, interior design, home furnishings, and graphic design over the next year. The past few years of Pantone® 'colours of the year' are listed below.

2020: Classic Blue
2019: Living Coral
2018: Ultra-Violet
2017: Greenery
2016: Serenity & Rose Quartz
2015: Marsala
2014: Radiant Orchid
2013: Emerald
2012: Tangerine Tango
2011: Honeysuckle

1) Pantone®. https://www.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year-2021 [25 December, 2020].

This year, Valentine's Day in London seemed like a low key event with companies only taking advantage of it in the final few days. I was able to take a few snapshots around London in my quest to find Valentine's Day decorations. This is how Valentine's Day was celebrated in London this year:

First up, I had to get one of the giant cookie cakes from Blondie's Bakery, located in Selfridges food hall. Blondie's were personalising their cookies for customers with a special Valentine's Day message. It is a perfect gift.

Maddox Gallery near Oxford Circus have been quick to show off their seasonal decor. Their Valentine's Day decor was to cover the building in pink and red roses with a neon |I think you love me" sign. This was popular with tourists.

The Ivy in Soho had a "I love Soho" (or "I heart Soho") spelled out in front of the shop, all made with colourful pink, red, white and purple flowers.

Additionally, their Market Grill restaurant in Covent Garden was decorated with red flowers.

A good place to see Valentine's Day treats are any of the cupcake or bakery shops, such as Hummingbird Bakery in Soho. I didn't get over to it, but the popular Peggy Porschens also has a range of Valentine's Day goodies as does Fait Maison.

Also, ice cream macaron shop Yolkin always relishes in creating creative seasonal macarons and ice cream. The heart macaron below was chocolate brownie.

I also discovered some items being set up at the end of the day on Thursday for the weekend, so it looks like it may be a Valentine's Day three-day weekend in London. One of those was a tree with hearts with Dominique Ansel branding. The bakery is due to open a Covent Garden branch soon. 

The Pantone® "colour of the year" for 2020 is "Classic Blue" (PANTONE 19-4052). The colour blue is a stable, comforting, and dependable colour that will help launch the new era. This shade of blue is an elegant and classic grown-up shade of blue, and this is the colour that Pantone® believe will be used throughout the year in fashion, the arts, and design. However, it's a little controversial because the company have not seem to have really got the colour right all of the times in the past and a new colour emerges as that year's most popular colour. It's too early to tell, but welcome to the year with the shade of classic blue. 

Overall, it's not one of my favourite colours. Blue is actually one of my least favourite colours, but it is a colour with mass appeal and probably the favourite colour for most people. 

Pantone® helps to set the colour trends. Expect to see this colour used in the world of fashion, interior design, home furnishings, and graphic design over the next year. The past few years of Pantone® 'colours of the year' are listed below.

2019: Living Coral
2018: Ultra-Violet
2017: Greenery
2016: Serenity & Rose Quartz
2015: Marsala
2014: Radiant Orchid
2013: Emerald
2012: Tangerine Tango
2011: Honeysuckle

1) Pantone®. https://store.pantone.com/uk/en/color-of-the-year-2020 [14 January, 2020].

Chocolate can inspire beautiful design. Not only can the chocolates themselves be beautiful, but the packaging can also be beautiful. Chocolate is an indulgent product, and there is a lot of it for sale, which has over-saturated the shelf in the supermarket. So, the products need to stand out. However, if you have your own chocolate shop, then that means that your brand also needs to stand out. Creating a delicious product is only part of the struggle. You need to make people try the product first, and the way to do this is to create a good brand.

I visited chocolate shop Melt in Notting Hill last week. On my way to the shop, which is about a fifteen-minute walk from the station, I saw a few people carrying bags for the shop. They immediately caught my eye because they look simple but stylish. I love the white bag with the simple font, embossed in gold with gold appearing to melt down from the top of the bag. I don't have the best photograph of the bags, but you can see the one above and also a detail below.

In the run up to Easter and spring, Melt have created their own style of chocolate. Easter is all about chocolate, so they created a few unique products that really stand out. Also, some of their chocolate is vegan, so they have something for everyone including a chocolate egg for £85.00, eggs for £30.00, and then several smaller offerings for lesser amounts. The strawberry Easter egg and acorn Easter egg are totally unique, combinging the egg shape with other items that are the same shape. The blue artistic egg is the most expensive, and there are many other options for a lot less, and they come in different colours and flavours too.

I love this time of year because the Easter products are so fun to look at, and I always see something that looks amazing. I've seen a lot of other amazing chocolates in the shops, but Melt's are my favourite this year. Also, their chocolate is amazing, and their hot chocolate is one of the best that I have had in London. So, I totally recommend paying this shop a visit if you love good quality chocolate.

I've previously covered some other good chocolate designs on these posts:

Easter Product Designs at Lush and Hotel Chocolat
Packaging: Artisan du Chocolat 
More Delicious Chocolate Packaging

Restaurants and cafes in London are realising that they can get more people in the door and excellent publicity simply by creating stunning floral displays on their shop fronts. People are flocking to these cutesy cafes and snapping away photographs of themselves in front of the floral displays and then posting them on social media. This then encourages more people to visit for the FOMO (fear of missing out) factors so that they can try this slice of lifestyle and get social media approval. More and more London cafes are doing this, so I snapped a few of these myself. 

The first is at Maddox Gallery off of Regent Street (pictured below). This stunning multi-level floral display features heart designs with pink heart neon lights. This continues to three floors. I snapped this one on Valentine's Day, so I'm sure it's been removed now. Also, quite a few others were snapping away too. I am unsure if they discovered the wonderful heart display by chance or if they saw it on social media first.

Elizabeth Street between Victoria Station and Slaone Square is another location with quite a few shops that decorate. This little corner of London has always decorated for the run-up and the weeks following the Chelsea Flower Show, but it's also now decorating for trade earlier in the year.

Peggy Porschen Cakes is one of the little cafes on this street, and they created a simple "love" message made with pink roses and also included various heart and Eifel Tower motifs in the windows.

Fait Maison, a restaurant located on Gloucester Road, also went all out with beautiful floral heart displays. Its vintage-inspired rose and carnation display was my favourite this spring.

This just goes to show how restaurants are investing in beautiful floral window displays to encourage people to come in, and this new drive has been born out of social media and modern technology which gives everyone the change to become a photographer to document the life around them.

Each year, Pantone® decide on a colour to define the upcoming year. The Pantone® "colour of the year" has been decided for 2019, and it is PANTONE 16-1546, better known as "Living Coral". This is a warm but vibrant pink shade, and according to Pantone®, it promotes comfort in ever-changing times (1). It is an optimistic and intimate colour that also seeks intimacy and connection. Pantone® describe it as working well in a world where social media plays an important part of life, and it also helps to ground us to nature. Last year's colour was vibrant purple (ultra-violet), which is a luxurious and spiritual colour.

Pantone® helps to set the colour trends. Expect to see this colour used in the world of fashion, interior design, home furnishings, and graphic design over the next year. The past few years of Pantone® 'colours of the year' are listed below.

2018: Ultra-Violet
2017: Greenery
2016: Serenity & Rose Quartz
2015: Marsala
2014: Radiant Orchid
2013: Emerald
2012: Tangerine Tango
2011: Honeysuckle

1) Pantone®. https://www.pantone.com/color-intelligence/color-of-the-year/color-of-the-year-2019 [7 December, 2018].

Today's post features some design and art inspiration. This week, I am featuring vintage letterpress card illustrations and designs in this post. First up is 1canoe2, a collaboration of artists who create letterpress work to sell over the world. Second is dodelinedesign, an illustrator from South Carolina who creates wedding and holiday stationary.

1canoe2 is a collaboration illustration and letterpress studio based in Columbia, Missouri. They create artwork, gifts, and stationary that is sold all around the world. Their Etsy shop can be seen here: http://www.etsy.com/people/1canoe2