Painting the town purple

Pantone's 2018 color of the year a nod to creativity, originality, and Prince.

It would seem that Prince has been spending his time in the great beyond whispering sweet nothings into the ears of the color gods. That has to be the reason. Because in yet another nod to the legacy of the Purple One (and David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix) and as an acknowledgment of life's great complexities-creativity, originality, ingenuity, the cosmos, intuition, the third-eye chakra and the depth of the unknown-Pantone has chosen what it calls ultra violet as its color of the year for 2018.

"This shade is one of nonconformity. ... People are looking for ways to display creativity," says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute in Carlstadt, New Jersey.

The color, Eiseman says, signifies that we are getting "a little braver and bolder".