Forbidden red

PANTONE has let down the Mathus in December 2023 with their announcement of Peach Fuzz (PANTONE 13-1023) #febe98 as their color of the year for 2024. This was accompanied by swaths of AI-generated videos employing the color. This is obviously ridiculous and embarassing for a company as well-established as PANTONE.

After plenty of discussion, the Mathus convened at a Home Depot to investigate a better choice of color of the year for 2024. We entered with browns and greens in mind, with the intent to reconnect our choice of color to the Earth we live on. This consciously pushes against the artificial and meaningless promotional materials PANTONE generated for Peach Fuzz.

Our process consisted of several rounds of selection and discussion. This Homet Depot had Behr paint chips. By the third round, we had zeroed in on Forbidden Red (Behr PPU1-10) #8a4646.

We were particularly intrigued by the adjective "forbidden": what does it mean for red to be forbidden? What happens if one uses Forbidden Red?

I personally think Behr's digital representation of Forbidden Red as #8a4646 is too dark. In person, their Forbidden Red paint chips appear lighter, but still tame as far as reds go. This is how I arrived at #ad4545 for my representation of Forbidden red.